By Eugene Nyarko Jnr. | British Council, Accra
The Country Director of SEND Ghana, Ms Harriet Nuamah Agyemang, has expressed concern over Ghana’s declining performance in the 2025 Open Budget Survey (OBS), describing the country’s overall score of 25 per cent as worrying and calling for urgent reforms to improve transparency, citizen participation and oversight in public financial management.
Speaking during a media engagement organised by SEND Ghana at the British Council in Accra on Wednesday, Ms Agyemang said Ghana’s performance in the international survey, which assesses countries’ budget processes, had steadily declined over the years.
According to her, Ghana scored 33 per cent in oversight and 22 per cent each in transparency and public participation in the latest survey, all of which remain below the international benchmark of 61 per cent.
She noted that Ghana’s overall score had fallen from approximately 40 per cent in 2019 to 25 per cent in 2025.
“Everybody wants to move up and not down. It means that we are not doing something right,” she stated.
Ms Agyemang attributed the country’s poor showing mainly to delays in publishing budget documents and inadequate information contained in some of the documents released.
She stressed that the timely publication of budget documents was critical to empowering citizens to engage meaningfully in budget discussions and hold duty bearers accountable.
The SEND Ghana Director further advocated innovative and less costly approaches to enhance citizen participation, including the use of digital platforms and social media to solicit public input.
She urged government to expand citizen engagement beyond budget formulation to implementation and monitoring, insisting that citizens should be aware of development projects and resource allocations in their communities.
Ms Agyemang also called on Parliament and the Audit Service to adopt more inclusive mechanisms for engaging citizens, arguing that increased public participation would strengthen oversight and improve Ghana’s future performance in the survey.
