Haruna Iddrisu, the Minister of Education, has taken the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, to the cleaners over his recent claims.
The Old Tafo MP had claimed that the government’s Free Sanitary Pad Distribution Programme price was bloated.
He accused the NDC government of extravagant spending under the Free Sanitary Pad policy for schoolgirls in basic and senior high schools.
Vincent Ekow Assafuah highlighted that the government in the 2025 budget revealed plans to purchase 3.1 million packs of sanitary pads at GH¢292 million, and also in the 2026 budget, the same amount of GH¢292 million was spent to procure 6.6 million packs.
According to him, from his calculations, the government procured each pack at about GH¢45, which is way higher than the market price of between 15 cedis to 25 cedis.
In a sharp rebuttal, Haruna Iddrisu fired Ekow Assafuah for using a ‘chop bar’ arithmetic in sanitary pad pricing.
Speaking on the floor of parliament, Haruna Iddirsu stated, “Mr Speaker, a colleague of mine arguing on sanitary pads chose to do chop bar arithmetics. He just took the number of 6.6 million in a batch of sanitary pad supply and came to the conclusion that the government was procuring sanitary pads for GH¢45.
“Mr Speaker, that is a palpable falsehood. The total number of sanitary pads being procured by the government is 12,000,208 at GH¢292 million, not for him to just take 6.6 million and divide it by GH¢292 million and come to the conclusion that one of it is costing GH¢45,” he said.
Some netizens reacting to Haruna Idrrisu’s remarks stated, “Although I und’stnd the politics of this policy, it’s not an efficient use of scarce public funds.
Per the figures given by the Hon. Minister, the unit cost of a pack of sanitary pads is 24.33 cedis. This is still on a very high side, given the quantity involved”.
“Every NPP cooked up a scandal about the current government that does not last 2 days”, a netizen added.
“For I always blame the media Houses that follow the NPP lies and start posting, to me alone, none of these lies from the NPP should be posted in the first place”, another X user stated.
One X user added, “When will low-budget Ablokwa take his time in trying to expose government shortcomings accurately?”
One more X user added, “292,000,000/12,000,208 =24.333 Cedis per sanitary pad. Asefuah can lie. Herh NPP has never wanted anything good to come from this government”
Watch the video below:
Education Minister fires back in sanitary pads debate, accusing MP Ekow Assafuah of using a 'chop bar' arithmetic. The Minister states the correct figure is over 12 million packs, not 6.6 million.#3NewsGH #TV3GH pic.twitter.com/UJeulPOxdN
— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) November 25, 2025