Ghana: GH¢89m in Fabricated Debt and GH¢10m Revealed in Unaccounted Funds within the 1D1F Initiative

A comprehensive audit of the One District One Factory program has exposed significant financial discrepancies and potential misappropriation of state funds under the previous administration. The investigation conducted by the Ghana Audit Service in collaboration with EY and PwC highlights a series of questionable transactions totaling millions of cedis.

Fictitious Debt Claims

The report reveals that in 2024 the Ministry of Trade and Industry requested GH¢89.4 million from the Ministry of Finance. These funds were intended to cover interest payments on loans across five commercial banks as part of the government’s support for the flagship initiative. While the Ministry of Finance had approved the request and moved it to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department for disbursement, auditors discovered a major inconsistency.

When investigators contacted the five financial institutions involved, all five banks officially denied that the government owed them any such amount. Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson informed Parliament on March 10 2026 that this debt was entirely fictitious. He noted that without the audit’s timely intervention the state would have lost nearly GH¢90 million to non existent liabilities.

Missing Funds and Non Existent Accounts

Beyond the fabrication of debt the audit also identified a missing payment of GH¢10.5 million. Official records within the 1D1F program indicated that this sum had been transferred to a commercial bank into an entity known as the Buffer Account. However verification efforts proved that the bank never received the money. Furthermore the account number provided by the ministry did not exist and did not match the standard numbering format used by that specific bank.

Calls for Forensic Investigation

Given these findings Dr. Forson has called for a deeper forensic audit of the entire GH¢391 million expenditure attributed to the initiative by the previous government. The discovery of phantom bank accounts and fabricated interest payments suggests a systemic failure in oversight and has raised serious concerns regarding the integrity of the program’s financial management.