The two main contenders for the 2012 elections, NDC's John Dramani Mahama and NPP's Nana Akufo-Addo were involved in a huge debate as to whether training doctors in Ghana is more cost effective than Cuba or vice versa. At the IEA Presidential Debate in Tamale on Tuesday, the NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo claimed information put out by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) on the internet say the cost of training a medical doctor in Ghana for the entire six-year is 30,000 US dollars. He therefore accused the government of sending 250 Ghanaians to Cuba to be trained as doctors at a cost of 105,000 US dollars per a person. According to him, the decision was financially imprudent and not strategic. He believed that Ghana would have been better served if that money was channeled into local training institutions. NPP presidential candidate’s submission attracted a sharp rebuttal from President John Dramani Mahama who maintained that the cost of training a doctor in Cuba is just $5,000 far below the cost as Nana Addo claimed. He therefore accused the NPP candidate of “conjuring figures” to misinform the public. The contrasting figures gave cause to many Ghanaians to wonder which of the two gentle men seeking their mandate to rule from 2013 to 2016 is lying or otherwise. The General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Frank Serebour speaking on Joy FM's Top Story Wednesday said the association early this year sighted a document quoting $50,660 as the cost of training each doctor in Cuba, a figure they thought was “astronomical”. Dr Sreboa was however silent on what the association has so far been able to establish as the actual cost, since the figure he insinuated that they "came across" has not been confirmed by the government. However, he stated that the cost of training a fee paying Ghanaian doctor in the country is $6,000 per a year, running into $36,000 for the entire six year duration. It would cost a foreigner $7,000 per year to be trained as a doctor in Ghana, he said. In another development, the pro-NPP pressure group the Alliance for Accountable Governance is challenging the 5,000 dollar figure put out by the President as the cost of training a doctor in Cuba. They claim to have in their possession, a cabinet memo that pegs the figure at Ghc50,000.