A heated dispute has erupted between Hajia Alima Mahama, Ghana’s former Ambassador to the USA, and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, concerning allegations of financial misconduct at the Ghanaian Embassy in Washington. At the heart of the disagreement is Fred Kwarteng, a former embassy staff member, and claims that he illegally amassed $4.8 million annually.
Minister’s Accusations
On June 18, 2025, Minister Ablakwa, also the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, addressed Parliament, detailing findings from an ongoing investigation. He asserted that Fred Kwarteng, through his company GTC, which handled courier services for passport and visa applications, was earning an astonishing $4.8 million annually.
“Investigations conducted by the top management of our ministry revealed that GTC dispatched between 150 and 350 visas and passports daily. On average, about 250 visas and passports were dispatched per day,” Ablakwa stated. He calculated that this meant approximately 62,500 visas and passports were dispatched annually, generating an estimated $1.8 million each year from courier services alone. Ablakwa further alleged that Kwarteng supplemented this by charging between $60 and $100 for assisting applicants with their forms, bringing his total earnings to an estimated $4.8 million annually from what the Minister termed an “unlawful enterprise.”
Former Ambassador’s Rebuttal
However, Hajia Alima Mahama swiftly rejected these claims in an interview on TV3 on June 23, 2025. She firmly stated that the figures provided by Minister Ablakwa were incorrect and that GTC operated under a valid contract with the embassy.
Mahama dismissed the notion that Kwarteng’s earnings were detrimental to the state. “I don’t know where he got his calculations from, but it can’t be true. How can it be a loss to Ghana? Like I have been saying, Ghana isn’t involved in courier services. We have hired this company to do courier services for us,” she explained.
She elaborated that Kwarteng’s company negotiated discounts with various courier services and charged clients a flat rate of $29.75 per delivery, irrespective of whether multiple passports were included in a single envelope. Mahama also highlighted that the embassy processes no more than 2,000 passports per quarter, and its annual revenue from visa issuance is less than $4 million, which she argued contradicts the minister’s $4.8 million figure for Kwarteng’s alleged earnings.
The stark contrast in accounts from two prominent Ghanaian officials leaves the public awaiting further details from the ongoing investigation into the alleged financial misconduct.
Watch a video of the former ambassadors remarks below:
