The 2027 Budget allocates GH¢292.4 million for the distribution of free sanitary pads to schoolgirls, the same amount as in 2025 and 2026. Spread over the 2.5 million girls the Deputy Education Minister said had benefited by November 2025, that is about GH¢117 a girl a year. At the GH¢19 to GH¢24 a pack he quoted then for the first batch, the allocation would buy about 5 to 6 packs each, not the monthly pack promised.
These are planned allocations, not money released or spent. No budget document published so far gives the amount actually spent on the scheme.
What people on X are saying
The line drew a strong reaction after Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson read the 2027 Budget on Thursday 12 November. A clip of the moment in Parliament, posted by @charllycolegh, had been viewed more than 88,000 times by 19:05 GMT on Saturday 14 November. StatsGH has not reviewed the clip.
Some posts got the figure wrong. @emma_jnrk wrote "sanitary pad 295 million". The Budget Statement says GH¢292 million; the appendix line is GH¢292.4 million. @Twinsdntbeg_ said the governing party "has spent almost 900 million ghana Cedis on sanitary pads".
What the budgets show
The 2025 Budget allocated GH¢292.4 million "to commence the distribution of free sanitary pads" (para 375). The 2026 Budget allocated GH¢292.4 million (Appendix 4A, MDA Expenditure Allocation (GH¢) – 2026 [Social Sector – GOG], line "o/w Free Sanitary Pads Distribution").
The 2027 Budget's matching appendix line is also GH¢292.4 million (Appendix 4A, MDA Expenditure Allocation (GH¢) – 2027 [Social Sector – GOG]). Paragraph 1560 of the Statement, and the Budget Speech, round that to GH¢292 million, within the Ministry of Education's GH¢48 billion.
All three years come to GH¢877.2 million, about GH¢877 million: allocated, not spent, and the 2027 money has not yet been released. The 2026 Mid-Year Review (23 July 2026, para 384) says GH¢915 million was paid for Ministry of Education goods and services "including sanitary pads", without a separate pads figure.
The 2027 amount is 74.7% more than the GH¢167.3 million the 2026 Budget had pencilled in for 2027 (Appendix 4B, MDA Expenditure Allocation (GH¢) – 2027 [Social Sector Summary – All Funding Sources]).
Cost of 12 packs a year for 2.5 million girls (GH¢ million)
Source: Ministry of Finance Budget Statements 2025–27 (2027 Appendix 4A, image table); Dr Clement Apaak via Ghana News Agency and Adomonline, November 2025. These are budget allocations, not spending. The 2.5 million girls figure is the November 2025 reported reach, not a 2027 target. The GH¢19–24 range is the deputy minister's quoted price for the first 2025 batch, not an official price.
Packs, girls and prices
The figures given for 2025 do not agree. The Ghana Education Service (GES) announced the distribution of 6,607,095 "sanitary pads" on 11 October 2025, as the Ghana News Agency and Graphic Online reported. The 2026 Budget (para 553) says 6.6 million packs went to girls in public basic schools, and that the programme would be extended to senior high schools in 2026.
Dr Clement Apaak, Deputy Minister for Education, said on 26 November 2025 that 3.9 million packs went to 20,744 public basic schools and 2.6 million to girls in secondary and technical-vocational institutions, reaching 2.5 million girls from Primary 5 to senior high, the Ghana News Agency reported. DailyGuide and Today Ghana reported that President John Mahama told Parliament in the February 2026 State of the Nation Address that 12.2 million packets were distributed to girls in public schools in 2025.
Those pad, pack and packet counts are reported as given. An official transcript of the address was not opened.
GES described the promise as pads for all schoolgirls "on a monthly basis throughout their life in school". For 2.5 million girls, 12 packs each at GH¢19 to GH¢24 would cost GH¢570 million to GH¢720 million a year.
That is 1.9 to 2.5 times the allocation. At the unrounded per-girl figure of GH¢116.96, the same prices buy 4.9 packs at GH¢24, or 6.2 packs at GH¢19.
The 2025 Budget (para 636) had planned for 1.3 million girls. For that number, the allocation would stretch to between 9 and 12 packs each.
The Minority's November 2025 claim of about GH¢44 a pack, which the Ghana News Agency quoted as "approximately 44 Ghana cedis", matches GH¢292.4 million divided by 6.6 million. Dr Apaak called the claim misleading, as Adomonline and 3News reported. He said the first batch of about 6.6 million packs cost GH¢19 to GH¢24 each, depending on the supplier's location and the region of delivery.
The Ghana News Agency also reported him saying that the cost of transportation and distribution had been factored into those prices. The 2027 Budget gives no number of girls or packs, and no unit cost, as 3News noted.
StatsGH did not contact the Ministry of Education or GES for this report. No fresh comment from either was found.
Our related stories cover the GH¢2.1 billion school feeding allocation and the 10,730 public basic schools with no classroom block.
What it means
At the 2.5 million girls cited in November 2025, the allocation does not pay for a monthly pack at the deputy minister's prices of that date. Those prices are a year old. Only a published spending figure, not another allocation, would show what the scheme has actually cost.
Limitations
Per-girl figures divide an allocation by a reported beneficiary count from November 2025; they are illustrations, not measured 2027 costs, and the 2027 Budget sets no beneficiary target. The 2.5 million figure is treated as exact in the arithmetic; if it was rounded, the per-girl amount would move slightly.
The GH¢19 to GH¢24 range is the deputy minister's quoted price for the first 2025 batch and, he said, already included transport and distribution, varying with supplier and delivery region. Pack, pad and packet counts from official sources conflict and are reported as given.
The Statement and Speech round the 2027 line to GH¢292 million; the appendix figure is GH¢292.4 million. The 2027 appendix tables in the published PDF have no text layer and were read from the page images.
Sources: Ministry of Finance, 2027 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, para 1560 and Appendix 4A. Ministry of Finance, 2027 Budget Speech. Ministry of Finance, 2026 Budget Statement, paras 553 and 1154 and Appendix 4A/4B. Ministry of Finance, 2025 Budget Statement, paras 375 and 636. Ministry of Finance, 2026 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review Speech, 23 July 2026, para 384. 3News, 12 Nov 2026. Daily Post Ghana, 13 Nov 2026. Ghana News Agency, 11 Oct 2025. Graphic Online, 11 Oct 2025. Ghana News Agency, 3 Dec 2025. Adomonline, 26 Nov 2025. 3News, 26 Nov 2025. DailyGuide Network, 27 Feb 2026. Today Ghana, 2026 SONA. StatsGH, school feeding 2027 story. StatsGH, 10,730 schools without classroom blocks.
X posts: @charllycolegh, @emma_jnrk, @Twinsdntbeg_.