Ghanaian billionaire Ibrahim Mahama paid a third of Ghana's disputed evacuation bill

Ghanaian tycoon Ibrahim Mahama's Engineers & Planners paid almost a third of the cost of bringing 1,964 Ghanaians home from South Africa this year, an operation whose accounts the opposition in parliament now says contain GH¢16.4 million, or about $1.4 million, in unexplained spending.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana's foreign minister, said on Sept. 7 that the evacuation cost GH¢49,721,786, or about $4.3 million. The government paid GH¢33.72 million, about $2.9 million, and Engineers & Planners, the mining contractor owned by Mahama, contributed GH¢16 million, about $1.4 million. Mahama is the younger brother of President John Dramani Mahama.

Ablakwa praised the businessman's commitment to the welfare of Ghanaians and said the bill had been "fully settled," with nothing owed.

What the Minority found

The Minority caucus obtained the ministry's records through a right to information request. The ministry replied on Sept. 18 with a report of more than 200 pages covering every evacuee.

Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, the Minority's deputy ranking member on the foreign affairs committee and MP for Bosome-Freho, said on Oct. 11 that GH¢16,423,470, about 33% of the spending, could not be reconciled with the documents. He demanded an independent audit by Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, EY or a comparable firm, with the results made public.

The caucus said only 824 names matched across the two payment registers for the GH¢5,000 reintegration grant and GH¢500 transport allowance that each returnee was meant to receive, leaving 1,140 people, or about GH¢6.27 million, unaccounted for. It also said only 247 of the roughly 1,038 people listed as flying on commercial tickets were documented, leaving about GH¢7.18 million in fares unexplained. Together those gaps came to GH¢13.45 million, or about $1.2 million.

It also flagged duplicate names in the registers and a manifest, blank and unsigned entries, and 442 minors on the reintegration list who, if paid both allowances, would account for GH¢2.43 million.

The Minority has not questioned the Engineers & Planners contribution itself, and its findings do not establish that money was stolen. Ayeh's caucus has said it is not alleging fraud and wants the discrepancies explained. The Minority's own summary contained an inconsistency, citing GH¢16,302,586 in its final demand against GH¢16,423,470 in the body of its findings. The ministry has invited the Auditor-General to audit the exercise and has asked for a special audit of every government-funded evacuation since 2017, including those from Ukraine and Sudan. Ayeh said the scale of the discrepancies warranted an independent review.

Where the money went

The ministry's records show air travel took nearly three quarters of the budget. Chartered flights cost GH¢27.18 million, about $2.4 million, and commercial tickets and layovers GH¢9.42 million, about $816,000. Reintegration and transport payments came to GH¢10.8 million, about $935,000. The remaining spending covered ground transport, food, hotels, communication and GH¢84,274 to repatriate and conduct autopsies on two Ghanaians who died in the violence.

The evacuations ran from May 27 to Sept. 4, after a new wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa. The last group of 41 returnees arrived in Accra on Sept. 4.

The MTN question

Mahama's contribution has drawn questions of its own. Local media reported that the government turned down a GH¢20 million, or $1.7 million, offer from MTN Ghana, the local unit of the South African telecoms group, while accepting the smaller sum from Engineers & Planners. The ministry said it declined MTN's offer because financing had already been secured before the package was announced. Critics have asked whether the businessman's family ties played a part, while supporters of the decision said accepting money from a South African-linked company during the crisis could have complicated Ghana's diplomacy.

Mahama's business

Mahama started Engineers & Planners in 1997 after returning from London. It has become one of West Africa's largest indigenously owned mining contractors, employing more than 3,000 Ghanaians, and in April it secured the lease of the Damang gold mine.

His other businesses include Dzata Cement, a cement factory in Tema that began operating in 2018, and Asutsuare Poultry Farms.