The salaries of politicians in Ghana are a frequent subject of public debate. Discussions about the issue can, however, become confusing because figures from different years are often presented online as though they were current salaries. There is also an important difference between a politician’s basic monthly salary and the wider package of allowances, facilities, privileges, and end-of-service benefits attached to some political offices.
As of August 2026, Ghana’s government says the remuneration structure currently being used for Article 71 officeholders was inherited from the previous administration. The recommendations governing that structure were submitted to Parliament in January 2025 and approved, according to Government Spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu. However, the sources reviewed for this article do not provide a complete official table showing the present monthly salary of every MP, minister, the Vice-President, and the President. Consequently, older figures should not be presented as current 2026 salaries without qualification (Baafi, 2026).
How Politicians’ Salaries Are Determined in Ghana
The remuneration of Ghana’s most senior political officeholders is governed primarily by Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution.
Article 71 covers, among others, the President, Vice-President, Speaker and Deputy Speakers of Parliament, Members of Parliament, Ministers of State, Deputy Ministers, and members of the Council of State. It also covers several senior judicial and independent constitutional officeholders who are not politicians (Judicial Service of Ghana, n.d.).
The Constitution does not simply assign a permanent salary to each position. Instead, Article 71 establishes a process under which a committee of not more than five persons is appointed by the President, acting on the advice of the Council of State. The committee makes recommendations on remuneration. For some Article 71 officeholders, the President determines the remuneration based on the committee’s recommendations, while Parliament determines the remuneration of the President, Vice-President, Council of State members, Ministers of State, and Deputy Ministers (Judicial Service of Ghana, n.d.).
Another important point is that the Constitution defines salary broadly for the purposes of Article 71. It states that “salaries” include allowances, facilities, privileges, and retiring benefits or awards. Therefore, the monthly salary alone does not necessarily represent the full value of an Article 71 officeholder’s compensation package (Judicial Service of Ghana, n.d.).
The Best-Documented Salary Figures
One of the clearest publicly accessible sets of figures comes from the Professor Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu Presidential Committee on Emoluments, which covered the period from 2017 to 2020.
A 2023 briefing paper by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) reproduced salary figures from the committee’s recommendations. Daily Guide also published figures from the committee’s report in 2021 (Adu, 2021; Asante & Asante Darko, 2023).
The following table presents selected 2020 figures. They should be understood as historical, documented figures rather than confirmed 2026 salaries.
| Political office | Documented monthly figure for 2020 |
|---|---|
| President | GH¢47,277 |
| Vice-President | GH¢39,397 |
| Speaker of Parliament | GH¢35,021 |
| Cabinet Minister who is also an MP | GH¢33,270 |
| Cabinet Minister who is not an MP | GH¢32,832 |
| Minister of State who is also an MP | GH¢30,644 |
| Regional Minister who is also an MP | GH¢30,644 |
| Minister of State who is not an MP | GH¢30,206 |
| Regional Minister who is not an MP | GH¢29,768 |
| Member of Parliament | GH¢28,017 |
| Deputy Minister who is not an MP | GH¢27,579 |
CDD-Ghana’s reproduction confirms, for example, GH¢47,277 for the President, GH¢39,397 for the Vice-President, GH¢33,270 for a Cabinet Minister who was also an MP, and GH¢32,832 for a Cabinet Minister who was not an MP (Asante & Asante Darko, 2023). Daily Guide’s report of the Ntiamoa-Baidu schedule gives GH¢35,021 for the Speaker and GH¢28,017 for an ordinary MP (Adu, 2021).
There is a small discrepancy in published reproductions concerning the 2020 salary of a Deputy Minister who was also an MP. CDD-Ghana gives GH¢28,760, while Daily Guide reported GH¢28,893 (Adu, 2021; Asante & Asante Darko, 2023). Rather than present one of these figures as unquestionably correct, that position has been omitted from the table above.
Are These the Salaries Politicians Receive in 2026?
No. The figures above should not be described as Ghanaian politicians’ confirmed 2026 salaries.
The Ntiamoa-Baidu figures relate to the remuneration cycle ending in 2020. A subsequent emoluments process took place under the Akufo-Addo administration. According to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the recommendations from that process were submitted to Parliament in January 2025 and approved. The government stated in June 2026 that President John Dramani Mahama had not established another committee to review Article 71 remuneration and that his administration was continuing with the salary structure inherited from the previous government (Baafi, 2026).
This means that there is a more recent remuneration structure than the 2020 figures shown above. However, the GBC report explaining the current arrangement does not publish the complete salary table or give the exact current monthly salaries of the President, Vice-President, MPs, and ministers.
For that reason, websites claiming precise “2026 salaries” for Ghanaian politicians without linking to the approved emoluments schedule should be treated cautiously.
Politicians Receive More Than Basic Salary
Salary is only one component of the remuneration attached to many senior political offices.
CDD-Ghana’s analysis of the Ntiamoa-Baidu recommendations showed that ministers and deputy ministers could also receive facilities and benefits associated with their positions. The 2020 package included official accommodation or an alternative housing arrangement, security, official vehicles, official-travel arrangements, and medical and dental benefits. The report also discussed gratuity arrangements (Asante & Asante Darko, 2023).
For example, the CDD-Ghana briefing stated that ministers could receive a fully furnished official residence or 20% of consolidated salary in lieu of housing. It also listed 24-hour state security and official vehicles among the facilities associated with ministerial office under the recommendations it reviewed (Asante & Asante Darko, 2023).
These benefits are important because simply saying that an MP or minister “earns GH¢X per month” can give an incomplete picture. The total cost of political office can be higher than the cash salary alone.
What About Ex-Gratia and End-of-Service Benefits?
The term ex-gratia is commonly used in Ghana’s political discussions to describe end-of-service payments made to certain public officeholders.
Under Article 71, retiring benefits and awards form part of the broader concept of remuneration. Such payments are different from ordinary monthly salary (Judicial Service of Ghana, n.d.).
The government stated in June 2026 that ministers, deputy ministers, and MPs who served during the Eighth Parliament had received salary top-ups and end-of-service payments based on recommendations approved before the current administration took office (Baafi, 2026).
Therefore, when discussing what politicians “earn,” it is important not to combine monthly salary, allowances, facilities, salary arrears, and end-of-service payments into one figure without explaining what the amount represents.
How Much Do Assembly Members Earn?
Assembly members are an important part of Ghana’s local-government system, but their remuneration operates differently from the national Article 71 system.
In April 2026, Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Ahmed Ibrahim announced that each of Ghana’s 9,090 assembly members was receiving a monthly allowance of GH¢1,300 before tax. He stated that the amount received after tax was slightly above GH¢1,000 (Ali, 2026).
The figure is an allowance rather than the type of Article 71 salary received by national political officeholders such as MPs and ministers. It should therefore not be used as a comparison without acknowledging the different roles and remuneration systems involved.
Why Ghana May Change the Article 71 System
Ghana is currently considering constitutional reforms to the way public officials’ remuneration is determined.
In its July 2026 position paper on constitutional reform, the government accepted a recommendation that an Independent Public Emoluments Commission should be established to determine the salaries, allowances, facilities, and privileges of public officers, including Article 71 officeholders (Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, 2026).
The government stated that the existing Article 71 arrangement creates a structural conflict of interest and argued that an independent commission could improve transparency, public confidence, and equity in the determination of public-sector remuneration (Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, 2026).
This is a constitutional reform proposal and should not be confused with a new salary schedule. The position paper itself does not state new monthly salaries for MPs, ministers, the President, or Vice-President.
Conclusion
So, how much do politicians earn in Ghana?
The answer depends on both the political office and the period being discussed. Under the best-documented 2020 salary schedule, the President’s monthly figure was GH¢47,277, the Vice-President’s was GH¢39,397, the Speaker of Parliament’s was GH¢35,021, a Cabinet Minister who was also an MP was allocated GH¢33,270, and an ordinary MP was reported at GH¢28,017 (Adu, 2021; Asante & Asante Darko, 2023).
However, these figures are not confirmed 2026 salaries. The current government says it is using a remuneration structure approved under the previous administration, following recommendations submitted to Parliament in January 2025. A complete authoritative table showing the present salary of each major political office was not provided in the official and reputable sources reviewed for this article (Baafi, 2026).
One current figure that can be stated clearly is the allowance for assembly members: GH¢1,300 per month before tax, as announced by the Local Government Minister in April 2026 (Ali, 2026).
Ultimately, understanding political pay in Ghana requires looking beyond basic monthly salaries. The Constitution treats remuneration as including allowances, facilities, privileges, and retirement benefits, meaning the overall financial value of holding political office can be considerably broader than the monthly salary figure alone (Judicial Service of Ghana, n.d.).
Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational purposes only and is based on publicly available sources considered credible at the time of writing. Salary figures, allowances, benefits, government policies, and constitutional arrangements may change, and some official remuneration details may not always be publicly accessible. Readers are therefore encouraged to independently verify all claims, figures, and references using official government documents, constitutional provisions, parliamentary records, and other authoritative sources before relying on the information for academic, professional, legal, or financial purposes. Any any corrections or modifications, contact us.
References
Adu, E. K. (2021, July 12). Executives, MPs salaries revealed. Daily Guide Network.
https://dailyguidenetwork.com/executives-mps-salaries-revealed/
Ali, M. (2026, April 20). Assembly members receive monthly allowances as government increases chiefs’ stipends. Graphic Online.
https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/assembly-members-receive-monthly-allowances-as-government-increases-chiefs-stipends.html
Asante, K. P., & Asante Darko, D. (2023, January). Proposals for reducing the size and cost of running government (Briefing Paper, Vol. 19, No. 3). Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).
https://cddgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Vol.-19-no.-3-Proposals-for-Reducing-Size-of-Government…pdf
Baafi, S. (2026, June 15). Presidency salary structure remains unchanged under Mahama administration – Kwakye Ofosu. GBC Ghana Online.
https://www.gbcghanaonline.com/general/mahama-presidency-salaries/2026/
Judicial Service of Ghana. (n.d.). The executive: Chapter 8 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, 1992.
https://judicial.gov.gh/jsweb/index.php/the-executive
Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice. (2026, July 28). Government position paper on the final recommendations of the Constitution Review Committee. Republic of Ghana.
https://www.presidency.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/CRC-Report_Government-Position-Paper-Clean_27072026-DRAFT-final.pdf
