The Bank of Ghana’s 2024 Annual Report, published on Monday, July 7, has revealed that the central bank spent GH¢206 million on official travel last year. This is exactly double the GH¢103 million recorded in 2023.

The disclosure comes amid heightened scrutiny of public spending and cost control, particularly as the Bank of Ghana posted a GH¢9.4 billion loss in 2024. While this marks an improvement from the GH¢13.2 billion loss in 2023, the sharp rise in travel expenditure has raised eyebrows.

On February 7, 2025, President Mahama issued a directive banning first-class travel for all government appointees. This is expected to help moderate official travel costs in the future.

This is the highest amount spent on official travel since at least 2015. That year, the central bank spent GH¢30 million on travel, which rose to GH¢48 million in 2019. It dipped to GH¢20 million in 2020 and GH¢28 million in 2021, largely due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

In 2022, travel expenses jumped to GH¢76 million before surging to GH¢206 million in 2024.

The central bank has not provided a breakdown of the 2024 travel costs but Ghana’s participation in the IMF programme may partly explain the increase. Frequent missions to Washington and other international financial meetings could have contributed.

Still, without further detail, the precise drivers of the doubling in travel spending remain unclear.