The Parliament of Ghana has maintained its ranks as the most open legislative body in West Africa, according to the 2025 Africa Open Parliament Index.

The latest report provides a comprehensive assessment of 33 African national parliaments, measuring their performance across three critical dimensions of legislative openness, including Transparency, Civic Participation, and Public Accountability.

The report conducted by the Africa Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations Network (APMON), however, suggested that the unicameral Parliament of Ghana scored an overall of 77.60%, placing second on the continent.

South Africa’s bicameral parliament came first in Africa with an overall score of 79.69% and was ranked as the most open in Southern Africa.

Kenya followed the two nations keenly, scoring 73.96%. It was also adjudged the most open legislative body in East Africa.

The Africa Open Parliament Index is a legislative transparency tool that seeks to measure the level of openness across national and regional parliaments in Africa, first published in 2022.

Other Key Highlights from the 2025 OPI

Parliaments that ranked lowest in the Index included the Parliament of Comoros (ranked 31st with an overall score of 29.69%), the Parliament of South Sudan (ranked 32nd with an overall score of 28.65%), and the Parliament of Guinea-Bissau (ranked 33rd with an overall score of 28.13%)

The Second Edition of the Africa Open Parliament Index (OPI) was launched in a virtual event that brought together civil society organizations, development partners, lawmakers, and media from across the continent.

Speaking during the launch, Secretary General of APMON, Sammy Obeng, emphasized the growing importance of openness in strengthening democratic governance.

"The OPI is not just a ranking - it is a roadmap. It challenges parliaments to open up their work, engage citizens meaningfully, and demonstrate accountability. The 2025 edition shows encouraging progress in many countries, but also highlights areas where urgent reforms are needed,” he noted.

The event featured a panel discussion of civil society leaders who reflected on the results and shared strategies for co-creating reforms that will make African parliaments more open, responsive, and citizen-centered.

APMON and its partners called on governments, parliaments, and development partners to work together to implement evidence-based reforms inspired by the index.

APMON is expected to engage with individual parliaments, CSOs, and regional bodies to present country-specific findings and support the development of action plans that advance parliamentary openness.

About APMON

The Africa Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations Network (APMON) is a network of non-governmental organizations and coalitions of civil society organizations that monitors the work of and/or regularly engages national, subnational and regional parliaments across Africa.

APMON seeks to enhance parliamentary transparency, accountability and citizen inclusion in parliamentary work across the continent, by promoting access to parliaments; developing tools to evaluate parliamentary performance; fostering citizen engagement with their national and regional parliaments; and facilitating peer learning among parliamentary engagement and monitoring organizations (PEMOs) in Africa