Vincent Ekow Assafuah and Haruna Iddrisu
Parliament yesterday witnessed sharp exchanges as lawmakers clashed over the government’s budgetary allocation for youth employment programmes and the cost of sanitary pads supplied to schoolgirls under the menstrual hygiene initiative.
Debating the 2026 Budget, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo, launched a blistering critique of the government’s flagship youth development programmes, accusing the administration of breaking its promises to young people and mismanaging funds earmarked for job creation.
He said Ghanaian youth had expected “a budget of prosperity, relief and opportunity” but were handed “a disappointment.”
According to him, the budget looked “robust on the surface but hollow inside,” likening it to a cow dung heap, firm at the top but soft below.
NEIP and Apprenticeship Funding Under Fire
Citing allocations to the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Mr. Assafuah argued that the government releases do not match its lofty promises.
He noted that although GH¢100 million was budgeted for NEIP in 2025, only GH¢34 million had been released, insufficient, in his view, to support the 2,000 youth enterprises the government promised to fund annually.
“Even if the entire GH¢34 million is shared among 2,000 young entrepreneurs, each will receive about GH¢17,000. What business in Ghana can you start with GH¢17,000? Not even a container,” he said.
A similar concern was raised about the National Apprenticeship Programme. Mr. Assafuah referenced the government’s pledge to train 10,000 people in 2025 and scale up to 100,000 trainees in 2026. He questioned how the government could achieve this with a 2026 allocation of GH¢150 million – half the GH¢300 million allocated in 2025.
“If GH¢150 million is divided among 10,000 trainees, each gets around GH¢15,000. What sustainable business can anyone start with that?” he asked, urging the government to move beyond temporary or contract-based jobs.
Heated Exchanges Over Sanitary Pad Distribution
Assafuah also criticised inconsistencies in the government’s menstrual hygiene programme. Referring to allocations in the 2025 budget, he said GH¢292 million had been earmarked for supplying sanitary pads to 1.3 million girls in basic and secondary schools – an amount he argued should translate to roughly GH¢225 per beneficiary.
He accused the government of overstating the cost of pads distributed in 2025, claiming that dividing GH¢283 million by 6.6 million pads amounted to GH¢45 per pad – a figure he described as “outrageous,” especially when the Ministry of Finance itself had earlier announced that pad prices had dropped to GH¢15.
“This is a troubling government. What they account for does not match what they themselves publish,” he said.
Education Minister Fires Back
The Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, swiftly rose on a point of order, rejecting Mr. Assafuah’s claims as “misleading and inaccurate.”
He insisted that GH¢45 per pad was not the unit cost, explaining that the 6.6 million pads referenced formed only a portion of the total supply under a competitive procurement process.
Additional deliveries, he said, were ongoing, and the final cost could not be determined by what he described as “chop bar mathematics.”
“This initiative is a serious effort by President Mahama to fight menstrual poverty and reduce absenteeism among girls,” the Minister said, warning against trivialising a major social intervention.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House