Public officials in Ghana demanded bribes more often in 2025, even as the proportion of citizens who paid them fell over the year, according to a Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) survey.
The latest Governance Series report also recorded a rise in the number of people refusing to pay bribes, despite a significant increase in contact between citizens and public institutions.
Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, Government Statistician, presented the findings at the launch of the third wave of the GSS Governance Series in Accra.
Covering the period from July to December 2025, the report complements data gathered during the first half of the year and compares governance indicators with those recorded in 2024.
In the latest six-month period, the proportion of citizens who refused to pay a bribe rose from 3% in the second wave of the survey to 4.9% in the third.
However, the proportion of respondents who said officials requested bribes increased sharply, from 51% to 69%. The share of citizens who paid bribes also rose between those two waves, from 14.3% to 18%.
The figures show a different trend when the whole of 2025 is compared with the previous year. Interactions between citizens and public officials increased from 56% in 2024 to 72% in 2025, meaning about 1.6 million more people accessed public services.
Despite that increase in contact, the annual proportion of citizens who paid bribes fell from 18.4% in 2024 to 16.8% in 2025. Payments of more than GH¢1,000 also declined, from 14.7% to 7.6%.
Dr Iddrisu said the survey used the same panel of respondents selected from the 2021 Population and Housing Census. That approach allowed the GSS to track changes over time using a consistent sample.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, he said the survey had not investigated why some citizens chose not to pay bribes. However, he suggested the improvement could partly reflect Government engagement with institutions highlighted in earlier editions of the report.
Following the publication of the second-wave findings, the Office of the Chief of Staff invited the GSS to a sensitisation session. That led to further discussions with the 10 institutions that had recorded the highest incidence of bribery, as well as institutions performing better in the survey.
According to Dr Iddrisu, those institutions shared their experiences and agreed action plans, including the digitisation of services, to reduce opportunities for bribery.
“This exchange of experience contributed meaningfully to the year-on-year gains,” he said.
He urged institutions to maintain the measures that had helped reduce bribery and added: “the fight against corruption is not a one-day wonder,” he said.
Dr Iddrisu also called for greater digitisation of public services to limit direct contact between officials and citizens, arguing that such interactions increased the likelihood of bribery. He said people who refused to pay should receive stronger protection and called for greater transparency in decision-making, including the preparation of budgets.
Beauty Emefa Narteh, Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, praised citizens who had refused to pay bribes. She said public awareness campaigns, including initiatives by the Office of the Special Prosecutor, had contributed to that trend.
But she warned that the concentration of corruption in frontline services, such as health facilities and public schools, remained a serious concern. Those most affected, she said, were people who could not afford private alternatives.
Mrs Narteh said some people unable to obtain healthcare without paying a bribe resorted to treating themselves, creating a threat to equal access to healthcare.
She welcomed the increase in civic engagement but expressed concern about the growing frequency of bribery demands and the exclusion of young people, older people and persons with disabilities from governance processes.
She added that young people who believed the Government was unresponsive could become disengaged, warning that youth alienation had been linked to unrest in parts of West Africa.
