The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, has pushed back strongly against rumours suggesting that President John Dramani Mahama has sanctioned a raise that places the salaries of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives at GH₵35,000.
The allegation surfaced earlier in the week when Adom FM’s morning show host, Omanhene Kwabena Asante, claimed the government had moved MMDCE pay from GH₵5,000 to GH₵35,000. When Opoku appeared on the station on November 19, 2025, he dismissed the information as inaccurate and said it had no legal basis.
He explained that the pay structure for MMDCEs is guided by Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution and further shaped by a committee report issued in 2011. That report pegged their remuneration to the Award 55 scale, with a mandated 10% increase each year.
Opoku outlined the progression prior to the NDC leaving office in 2016, noting that MMDCEs were receiving around GH₵16,445 annually at that time. According to him, the administration that followed was required to continue applying the yearly increment but did not initially implement it. He added that the adjustment only went through after intervention by then Local Government Minister Dan Botwe, leading to the approval of outstanding arrears and ex-gratia payments. That recalculation, he said, pushed MMDCE salaries to roughly GH₵32,000.
He clarified that this existing amount is what newly appointed MMDCEs under the Mahama administration are starting with, since it is the figure inherited from the previous government. He suggested that this inherited pay structure may have been misconstrued as a new increment, fueling the false claim of a GH₵35,000 salary hike.
@adom1063fmPresident Mahama has not increased salaries of MMDCEs by 67% – Eric Opoku (Minister for Food and Agriculture) #DwasoNsem
