Abetifi MP and New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential hopeful, Dr. Bryan Acheampong, has stirred the party’s internal politics with claims that he single-handedly financed Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s 2023 flagbearership campaign in the Eastern Region.
Addressing party members, Dr. Acheampong alleged that Dr. Bawumia “didn’t bring a penny” into the region during the primaries, forcing him to shoulder all expenses, including payments to delegates.
“I paid every single penny for him to become the flagbearer of this party. He didn’t pay a penny. All the constituency executives – everybody collected $1,500 in the super delegates election,” Acheampong stated.
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He further recounted a private dinner conversation with Former President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, held after the one-week funeral of the Ashanti Queen Mother in Kumasi. According to him, the President asked about his claims of being the NPP’s chief financier, to which he responded
“Yesterday I was at Kumasi for the Ashanti Queen Mother’s one-week funeral. I had dinner with Akufo-Addo, who said, ‘I heard you said you have funded the party more than anyone else.’ Then I responded, Yes. After all, you Nana said I was the single largest contributor to you coming to power in 2016 – and it’s a fact,” Acheampong said.
The Abetifi MP added that his financial role in the party did not end in 2016. He insisted that in 2024, his personal support for Dr. Bawumia’s campaign far exceeded the resources he had committed to Akufo-Addo’s presidential bids.
“In 2024, I funded Dr. Bawumia more than I even funded Nana Akufo-Addo,” he declared.
The Numbers Behind the Claim
In the Eastern Region, 81 delegates were eligible to vote in the 2023 super delegates election. This group included 17 regional executives, two founding members, three National Council members, one Regional Minister, 26 Members of Parliament, and 33 constituency executives.
By Acheampong’s own admission, if each delegate received $1,500, that amounts to a staggering $121,500 in payouts for the Eastern Region alone. This figure does not account for logistics, campaign materials, or other operational costs that typically accompany such contests.
If replicated across multiple regions, the scale of financial commitments in NPP’s flagbearership race becomes striking, speaking to the weight money continues to carry in Ghanaian internal party politics.