Ghana's official cement index was 7.3% below its 2024 high in September 2026, according to the Ghana Statistical Service's Prime Building Cost Index (PBCI).
That is a much smaller fall than the drop from GH¢115 to about GH¢80 a bag, or about 30%, attributed to Felix Kwakye Ofosu on Friday 13 November.
Those two figures are not a like-for-like comparison. The PBCI tracks construction-input prices, not a retail price per bag. It averages many brands and grades, collected from 489 outlets across 16 markets.
The latest reading is for September, so any cut in October or November will not show yet. The minister was talking about a bag price "now", against a 2024 figure, and he did not say which brand, grade or month in 2024 he meant. StatsGH has not asked him for a reply.
His office has not published the monthly market survey he cited, so the per-bag numbers cannot be checked against it. A fall of that size could still be true for a particular brand or grade, or if prices were cut after September.
The Minister of State for Government Communications was speaking on Metro TV's Good Morning Ghana. 3News reports that he "put a bag of cement at about GH¢80 now, against GH¢115 in 2024". Modern Ghana says he described a bag that had cost him GH¢115 in 2024.
Both outlets report him saying iron rods had fallen from about GH¢9,800 to GH¢6,800 a tonne, and that landlords therefore had no basis to raise rents. In his own words: "I have a market survey every month.
Hundreds of items here. Over 95 per cent of them have seen price reductions."
What the official index shows
The GSS cement sub-index, which carries an 11.2% weight in the building-cost basket, rose sharply through 2024. It peaked in May 2025, eased, and has been broadly flat since February 2026. In September 2026 it was:
- 6.1% lower than a year earlier
- 7.3% lower than in September 2024, the 2024 high
- 14.4% lower than the May 2025 peak
- 44.9% higher than in January 2024
There is no official per-bag series that would show whether GH¢115 matched that 2024 high. For a 30% fall from the September 2024 index level, the index would need to drop by another quarter from its September 2026 reading.
GSS does not publish an "iron rod" line. Its two closest sub-groups are steel and reinforcement. Steel was 8.8% cheaper than a year earlier but 8.5% dearer than in September 2024.
Reinforcement rose 29.0% in the year, the fastest of all 23 sub-groups, and was 22.7% above September 2024. Neither official measure shows a fall of around 31% over those periods. As with cement, the series ends in September and is not a tonne price at a shop.
Overall, GSS put building-cost inflation at 5.1% in September. Materials were up 6.5% and labour was down 3.2%.
The dashed line at 103.4 is an illustration only: the index level that would match a 30% fall from September 2024. It is not a shop price.
Source: Ghana Statistical Service, Prime Building Cost Index Annexes, September 2026, Annex 2 (Av. 2023 = 100). The 103.4 marker is 148.64 × 80/115, an illustration of a 30% fall from the September 2024 cement index, not a shop price.
What people on X are saying
TV3 (@tv3_ghana) posted: "Cement is down from GH¢115 to about GH¢80 a bag, says Kwakye Ofosu, so landlords have no basis to raise rents." Other accounts dropped the attribution. @MrNuamah wrote: "G NEWS: Cement prices in Ghana have dropped from GH¢115 to about GH¢80 per bag." @elorm0777 called it "good news for homeowners and everyone hoping to build".
Other bag-price reports
GSS does not publish a retail price per bag, so the minister's GH¢80 and GH¢115 figures cannot be tested against an official shop-price series. In January 2026, Trade Minister Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare said 32.5R cement was selling at GH¢80 to GH¢85, against a previous price of GH¢113, and that 42.5R averaged GH¢107, against GH¢118, Graphic reported.
Those remarks are ten months old. A fall from GH¢113 to GH¢80 would be about 29%, close to the 30% now being shared, but only for that lower grade and only as of January.
Accra Street Journal, in a 1 November round-up, said 32.5R averaged GH¢100 a bag and 42.5R GH¢117 in September, and that October ground checks found GHACEM 42.5 still at GH¢120 to GH¢135 and 32-grade around GH¢110. It also said viral claims of GHACEM at GH¢82 or GH¢85 were false, and put iron rods at GH¢7,500 a tonne in September, up from GH¢7,300.
That is a secondary report, and we have not checked shop prices ourselves.
Limitations
The PBCI is an index of construction inputs to September, not a November price per bag. The minister's 2024 starting price cannot be matched to a month in the official series. We did not ask him which survey, brand or grade he used.
Graphic's GH¢80 to GH¢85 range for 32.5R is from January. Accra Street Journal's later shop figures are secondary and unverified by us.
Related: Ghana Building Costs Rise 5.1%.
Sources
- Ghana Statistical Service, PBCI Bulletin, September 2026
- GSS, PBCI Annexes, September 2026 (Annex 2, PBCI by Sub Groups; Annex 3, Rate of Inflation by Sub Groups)
- GSS, PBCI Presentation, September 2026
- 3News, 14 Nov 2026
- Modern Ghana, 14 Nov 2026
- Graphic Online, "Trade Minister meets cement manufacturers over pricing, standards", 20 Jan 2026
- Accra Street Journal, 1 Nov 2026
- X posts: @tv3_ghana; @MrNuamah; @elorm0777