Dr Clement Apaak is the Deputy Minister of Education
Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Clement Apaak, has dismissed accusations from the Minority in Parliament that the government is inflating the cost of sanitary pads being supplied to female students.
The claims came after the MP for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, raised concerns on November 25, 2025, about the allocation of GH¢292 million for 6.6 million sanitary pads.
He argued that the numbers do not align with current market prices and suggested that the cost may have been inflated.
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Speaking to journalists in Parliament on, November 26, 2025, Dr Apaak said the accusations were unfounded and driven by politics.
He claimed the Minority was trying to create a scandal to tarnish the image of the Mahama administration, adding that the Old Tafo MP’s calculations were misleading.
“For the Honourable Member of Parliament to disingenuously perform what the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has described as chop-bar arithmetic, we can only conclude that this is another attempt to manufacture a scandal to discredit the John Dramani Mahama government so the decomposing elephant can feel relevant,” Dr Apaak said.
The Deputy Minister insisted that the government has done nothing wrong.
“There is no scandal. There will never be a scandal. The NDC under John Dramani Mahama and the Ministry of Education has not purchased a pack of sanitary pads for 45 Ghana cedis and will never do so,” he stated.
Dr Apaak stressed that the process has been transparent and that the government remains committed to ensuring value for money.
“We have the data to show that we are a transparent, accountable government that promised to reset governance and guarantee value for money,” he said.
He reported that 3.9 million pads have already been distributed to pupils in 20,744 public basic schools, while another 2.6 million have gone to girls in 906 senior high and TVET schools.
According to him, 398,701 basic school pupils have benefited so far. At the junior high level, 1.1 million girls have received pads, along with 968,285 girls in senior high schools.
Dr Apaak said the programme has reached a total of 2,578,915 female students from Primary Five to SHS, describing the initiative as life-changing and insisting it is being carried out with integrity.
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AK/SSM