The 2027 Budget, read on Thursday 12 November, sets aside GH¢1 billion "for payment of allowance to National Service Personnel". It does not state a new monthly rate.
On Budget night, posts on X said the allowance had gone up to GH¢1,200. Two of them drew about 66,000 impressions between them. The claim was already circulating earlier that day: NTS24 published a fact-check that afternoon of posts saying personnel would get GH¢1,200 from 2027.
We searched the published Budget Statement and Speech for "National Service", "allowance" and "1,200", and rendered the appendix spending tables for the youth ministry. None of them states a new rate, and the tables carry no separate line for National Service allowances. 3News reported on Thursday night that the Budget does not say whether the rate will change.
Where GH¢1,200 came from
GH¢1,200 is the National Service Authority's own request. On Wednesday 22 July, Deputy Director-General Fuseini Donkor told Citi's Eyewitness News that the Authority had put its case to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.
"They take GH¢715 per month, so we are hoping to increase it to at least GH¢1,200," he said, Citi reported. No approval has been announced.
The current rate, GH¢715.57, took effect in January 2023. The then National Service Scheme said in July 2023 that the government had approved the rise from GH¢559.04, the rate set in January 2017, Ghana Guardian reported.
What inflation has done to it
The Ghana Statistical Service's consumer price index rose 63.7% from January 2023 to October 2026, from 165.59 to 271.15 (average 2021 = 100). This is the national CPI basket, an average across items and outlets, not a graduate's own costs.
On that measure, GH¢715.57 today buys what GH¢437.00 bought in January 2023, a 38.9% loss of purchasing power, by StatsGH's calculation. To buy the same basket as in January 2023, the allowance would need to be GH¢1,171.72. The Authority's GH¢1,200 request is 2.4% above that.
GH¢, January 2023 prices, 0–800. GH¢715.57 × CPI (January 2023) / CPI (month). Source: Ghana Statistical Service CPI Annex 1 (October 2026, average 2021 = 100); StatsGH calculation.
What GH¢1 billion could pay
The Budget does not say how many personnel the GH¢1 billion covers. At GH¢715.57 a month it would pay about 116,500 people for a full year. At GH¢1,200 it would pay about 69,400.
Paying 116,500 people GH¢1,200 for a year would cost about GH¢1.68 billion. 3News made the same 116,000 estimate on Thursday, at a rounded GH¢715.
The allocation is more than the Authority says it spent in 2025. In April, Deputy Director-General Moses Dok Nach Kpeungu told Joy FM that "as of last year, we paid barely about 700 million Ghana cedis", against "about 1.5 to 1.6 billion" previously, after ghost names were removed and checks tightened, 3News reported. He said fewer postings were not the reason.
The Authority posted a first batch of 70,072 personnel for the 2026/27 service year on 30 September, MyJoyOnline reported.
What people on X are saying
@ebo_donkohh wrote: "NSS allowance increased to 1200 cedis wow 😂😂 The new economy 🔥". It had about 55,600 impressions. @diongentle_ posted that the allowance "has been moved from 715gh to 1,200gh" (about 10,800 impressions). The next morning @mista_plasmah wrote: "Hmm the NSS allowance is still 715".
What it means
For now, personnel should treat GH¢1,200 as a request, not a rate. If the allowance stays at GH¢715.57 through 2027, its real value will fall further if prices keep rising.
Related: our check of what GH¢100 of October 2022 shopping costs now, https://www.statsgh.com/macroeconomy/ghana-ghs100-2022-official-basket-costs-ghs188-not-ghs105-caption.
We did not ask the National Service Authority, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission or the Finance Ministry for comment. We found no statement from them after the Budget on the monthly rate.
Limitations
We assume GH¢715.57 still applies; the Authority last gave the rate publicly as "GH¢715" in July 2026 (Citi), and the Accra Daily Mail listed it as current on 29 October. We checked the published Budget documents, not a recording of the speech.
The appendix tables give the youth ministry about GH¢1.59 billion from all funding sources for 2027, less than the GH¢3.5 billion in the Statement, so we could not trace the GH¢1 billion to a single line. The CPI comparison starts in January 2023, when the rate took effect, though approval came in July 2023.
The per-person figures assume 12 monthly payments and ignore arrears and the timing of service years. Kpeungu's GH¢700 million is a rounded spoken figure.
Sources: Ministry of Finance, 2027 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, 12 Nov 2026, paras 1198, 1380, 1571–1572; Appendix 4A 2027 [Social Sector – GOG] (printed p.193), [Social Sector Summary – All Funding Sources] (p.211), Appendix 4B 2028 [Social Sector Summary] (p.217), rendered. Ministry of Finance, 2027 Budget Speech, 12 Nov 2026, paras 608–609. Citi Newsroom, "NSA pushes for GH¢1,200 allowance for service personnel", 22 Jul 2026. Ghana Guardian, "Govt approves NSS allowance increase from GH¢559.04 to GH¢715.57", 23 Jul 2023. NTS24, "Fact-Check: Has Government Approved a GH¢1,200 Allowance for NSS Personnel in 2027?", 12 Nov 2026. 3News, "NSS allowance 2027: Budget sets aside GH¢1bn for National Service personnel", 12 Nov 2026. 3News, "NSA cuts payroll from GH₵1.6bn to GH₵700m after ghost names removal and system reforms", 20 Apr 2026. MyJoyOnline, "NSA releases 70,072 postings for 2026/2027 national service year", 1 Oct 2026. The Accra Daily Mail, "NSS Allowance In Ghana: GH¢715 Payment, Delays And Absa Overdraft", 29 Oct 2026. Ghana Statistical Service, October 2026 CPI COICOP Annexes, Annex 1 (headline CPI, average 2021 = 100). StatsGH, "GH¢100 of 2022 shopping" check, 14 Nov 2026.
X posts: @ebo_donkohh; @diongentle_; @mista_plasmah; @tv3_ghana.