The much-publicized promise to regularize and promptly pay Assembly Members’ allowances under President John Dramani Mahama is increasingly being compared by Assembly members to former President Nana Akufo-Addo’s NABCO programme, which many beneficiaries say began with hope but ended in disappointment.
Assembly Members across the country say the assurances given ahead of the elections raised expectations that years of neglect would finally end. However, months into the new administration, seven months of 2025 allowances remain unpaid, while government is reportedly preparing to pay only two months of 2026 allowances a development members describe as confusing and misleading.
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“This is beginning to look exactly like NABCO,” an Assembly Member said. “Big promises, big announcements, but when it comes to real payments, the story changes.”
Under the previous administration, NABCO was introduced as a flagship employment intervention but later faced criticism over delayed stipends, uncertainty, and an abrupt exit plan. Assembly Members now fear the same pattern is unfolding with their allowance scheme describing the situation as loud political messaging followed by silence and shifting explanations.
According to the aggrieved members, provisions were made in the 2025 national budget for the payment of their allowances. Yet, despite repeated patience and restraint, the expected payments have not materialized, raising questions about whether the funds were diverted, delayed, or reallocated.
Even more worrying to Assembly Members is the lack of clear communication from the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), which is expected to represent and protect their interests.
“If the money is there, pay us. If it is not, tell us the truth,” another member stated. “We are tired of political promises that collapse after elections.”
Assembly Members insist they are not attacking the government but demanding accountability. They argue that as the backbone of local governance, they are required to work daily with their communities, often using personal resources to solve basic problems, while waiting endlessly for allowances that were publicly promised.
The comparison with NABCO has now gone viral in Assembly Member platforms and local government circles, with many warning that continued silence could turn quiet frustration into open resistance.
As pressure mounts, Assembly Members are demanding straightforward answers:
What happened to the 2025 allowances?
Why is government paying 2026 allowances when 2025 remains unpaid?
And why do political promises at the grassroots level repeatedly end in disappointment?
Until clarity is provided, many Assembly Members say the allowance promise risks being remembered not as a reform, but as another political illusion sold to the grassroots.
