The NDC has a deja vu problem. Whenever President John Dramani Mahama needs a headline, the figure is always the same: $10 billion.
In 2009, it was the STX deal. In that deal $10 billion for 200,000 houses in five years was announced. Parliament approved the first tranche in August 2010 — 30,000 units for the security services at $1.5 billion. Sod was cut with full state pomp on January 27, 2011, at the Tesano Police Training Depot.
President Mahama, who was Vice President at the time, was the man handling the deal. He had travelled to Seoul to, in President Mills’ own words, ‘nail the coffin’ of STX.
By December 30, 2011, Vice President Mahama had announced that the deal was dead. Boardroom wrangling between STX Korea and its Ghanaian partner, GKA Airports Company, had ensured that not a single block was laid even though land at Kwabenya had been cleared. The head office at Airport Residential Area was put up for rent. Furniture and vehicles were put up for sale.
Ghana was left with nothing but a bill. Critics alleged over $300 million lost, including $245 million in so-called “political risk insurance” paid after Ghana waived its sovereign immunity and issued a sovereign guarantee.
President Mills was forced to publicly eat humble pie, admitting: ‘We have some difficulties with the STX project.’
In March 2013, It was Hope City. Another $10 billion project was announced, Six towers, 75 storey, touted as the tallest in Africa and Africa’s Silicon Valley. The sod was cut at Dukunna with military pomp, and completion was promised within three years.
Thirteen years later, not a single block has been laid. The bush has reclaimed the site, leaving the project’s signboard as a reminder of an unfulfilled promise. rLG, the project’s partner, is “DEAD”.
As if that wasn’t enough, in the 2020 NDC Manifesto, there was The Big Push. Once again, a $10 billion commitment to infrastructure development, covering roads, hospitals and schools. The promise was repeated on virtually every campaign platform.
In June 2026, at the Ghana-UK Investment Summit in London, it was rebranded as the US$10 billion Big Push Infrastructure Programme to accelerate roads, railways, ports, housing and aviation. Same figure, same promise, new suit.
In October 2026, it was reborn again. President Mahama announced a US$10 billion New Economy Programme over four years, $2 billion a year into agriculture and industry, at the sod-cutting for Afienya Industrial Park. Full details in the November Budget, we are told.
Five announcements. One figure. Zero delivery.
That is the definition of hoax political rhetoric – bold numbers with no funding, no financing structure, no investor list, no Act of Parliament. Just consultations.
In the end we would be told that Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson is consulting Trade Ministry. Trade Ministry consulting NDPC. NDPC to monitor implementation of something that has not been implemented. The bureaucracy of nothing.
And this hoax has a human cost, because while government announces $10 billion fantasies, it cannot pay GH¢10,000 salaries.
– Today in Ghana, 52,541 promoted teachers have not received their new salaries because government has not processed their paperwork.
– 80,000 teachers passed promotion exams, only 6,000 placed on scale.
– Newly recruited teachers from 2024 worked 17 months without pay.
– TUTAG post-retirement faculty at Kumasi Technical University went 12 months without salary.
– GNAT, NAGRAT and PRE-TAG went on nationwide strike on September 25, 2026, closing most public basic schools in Ashanti and nationwide.
– The Controller and Accountant-General says forms missing. GES says no financial clearance. Finance Ministry says payment starts in May, then October 16, then end of October. Teachers still waiting.
How does a government that cannot pay a teacher’s GH¢3,500 monthly salary credibly promise $10 billion?
How does a government that blames paperwork for not paying 50,000 teachers claim it will invest $2 billion every year?
Ghanaians have short memories, as the President himself once said.
But teachers marking scripts without pay have long memories. Nurses without allowances have long memories. A country that cannot clear 6,300 file clearances cannot clear a $10 billion transformation.
Ghana does not need another $10 billion city in the sky. Ghana needs the $10 billion already announced to be accounted for. Starting with STX.
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