Education Minister and Tamale South MP, Haruna Iddrisu, has called for a gradual increase in the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) allocation from the current 5% to 7.5% of Ghana’s projected national revenue.
According to Mr Iddrisu, the adjustment should begin in 2027, with a one-percentage-point increase that would be followed by a further one-percentage-point rise in 2028.
He said the proposed increment would help the government deliver on its NDC manifesto commitment while providing Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) with the financial capacity needed to perform their responsibilities effectively.
Speaking at the second National Dialogue on Decentralisation and Responsive Governance on Monday, August 10, Mr Iddrisu described the DACF as a key component of Ghana’s decentralisation framework.
“Now, the elephant in the room is the District Assemblies Common Fund. We said in the NDC manifesto that we would adjust the DACF from 5% to 7.5%. So, as a government, we have said that we will increase the DACF.
“The DACF under the Atta Mills government was 7.5%, so we want to walk gingerly and gradually towards the same. In 2027, you can give one per cent, and in 2028 add another one per cent, and we would have honoured the manifesto pledge of adjusting the DACF to 7.5%,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu argued that stronger financial resources for the assemblies would be essential to the government’s broader decentralisation agenda, particularly its plans to deepen the role of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).
He proposed that the additional funding should be targeted at key sectors, including health and education, to enable local authorities to take greater responsibility for service delivery.
Under the proposal, one percentage point of the increase could be channelled into healthcare, allowing metropolitan and other assemblies to recruit health professionals directly.
“So that a metropolitan assembly can now recruit doctors and nurses on its own, making use of that one per cent allocation for health,” he said.
He further proposed that another one percentage point be directed towards education and devolution as part of efforts to strengthen local governance and accountability.
“Then the other one per cent will go to education, devolution and the democratisation of education. This is the thinking of the President. These were the principles we agreed to.
“So we cannot be walking back on policy principles that we all agreed to that deepen democratic decentralisation, make it competitive and elective, open it up, and deepen citizens’ accountability,” he said.
The Education Minister maintained that decentralisation would remain difficult to achieve if local authorities continued to depend heavily on funding releases from central government.
He said MMDAs needed greater financial autonomy to execute their mandates without being constrained by delays or inadequate releases from the central government.
“But we can’t do it if the DACF is not available. Maybe the Local Government Minister can’t say it, but I’ll say it for him: if he is going to rely on releases from the Finance Ministry, the ministry won’t function effectively.
“Just like me, the Education Minister, I won’t function well without GETFund,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu therefore urged the government to begin implementing the proposed phased increase to ensure that the decentralisation process is backed by adequate and predictable funding.
