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On September 27, which was 71 days before Ghana’s 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, major news outlets in Ghana ran a similar headline: Bawumia leads Mahama in latest polls by Outcomes International.
The Chronicle, Pulse, and Adom Online published stories about the poll on their platforms. In what appeared to be a copy-and-paste trend, other major media houses including Starrfmonline, Daily Guide, Ghanaweb.com, and Citi Newsroom published the same content about the story without any indication that it’s paid-for content (advertorial).
Outcomes International, which describes itself as “educational research firm” based in Accra, had reported in its polls that the incumbent Vice President and Presidential candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia (49.4%), leads the Former President and Presidential Candidate of the largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama (45.1%), in 11 out of the 16 regions of Ghana.
The research firm also predicted that the NPP would control the majority in the next Parliament, winning 144 out of the 275 seats (52%) with the NDC securing 131 seats (36%).
Beyond reporting that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia leads John Mahama, the polls indicated that 53% of the population thinks that the NPP government’s performance on health is either excellent or good. On education, 58% think the government has been either excellent or good; and on road infrastructure, 48% consider the government’s performance as either excellent or good, with 21% being neutral about how the government has fared.
The September 2024 poll was not the first time Outcomes International predicted elections in Ghana. In October 2023, the research firm predicted the results of the NPP’s presidential primaries.
Outcome International predicted that Dr Bawumia would win the NPP presidential primaries elections by 73%. Bawumia’s close contenders, Former Minister of Trade, Alan Kyeremanten, and the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, were supposed to manage a paltry 7.7% and 4.3%, respectively. This prediction also received extensive coverage in the media.
However, when the primaries were held in November 2023, the results were at variance with Outcome International’s prediction. Bawumia garnered 61.4%, more than 10% lower than the research firm’s prediction. And Kenndy Agyapong pulled 37.4% of the votes. This was after Alan Kyeremanten had broken away from the party.
Despite the failure of their previous prediction, Outcomes International’s September 2024 projection of the December 7 general elections has received massive media coverage. The prediction has also received equal social media critique, with many handles doubting its credibility. This prompted Fact-Check Ghana to investigate the firm and review the polling prediction.
Fake location and a website that hides identity
The research firm has a website, outcomes-intl.com. But the web page is merely a dump site for the firm’s supposed research results and republications of their predictions as reported by the media. The website has no information about who or what the research firm is about. It provides no information about who is behind the polls, its funders, contacts, or the firm’s location.
However, Fact-Check Ghana’s checks on WhoIs, an open-source platform, used to gather information about webpages, showed that the website was registered on December 22, 2022, through a US-based domain registration firm, Perfect Privacy LLC. Thus, as far as activities online, Outcomes International came to be less than two years ago.
Two months after the webpage of Outcomes International was set up, its Facebook page was created in February 2023. The Facebook page described the organisation as an “educational research firm”. The page also provides an email, a phone contact, and a Google location coordinates.
While the email does not respond to enquiries, the phone number is not reachable. Checks revealed the name registered on mobile money for the phone number is Habibu Alidu.
On the internet, Outcomes International has two different locations—one provided by its Facebook page and another by Google.
According to Google, Outcomes International can be found at 21 Samora Machel Rd, Asylum Down, Accra. But at the location, no one knows of a firm by that name.
21 Samora Machel Rd at Asylum Down is occupied at the front by an old yellow and grey two-floor storey building with some adjourning rooms behind. Dampened by age and lack of maintenance, the building houses a tax insurance law firm, Kwadwo Affram Asiedu and Partners, and a few private individuals who are tenants. The address was also previously the home of GDFS Money Lending Company Ltd.
“I don’t know any company by that name,” Kwabena Stanley, a resident at 21 Samora Machel Rd told Fact-Check Ghana. “I have been staying here for many years; we have not had any company like that. The only company here is this law firm.”
“Did the company tell you this is where they are located? That cannot be true,” Stanley said.
Kwadwo Affram Asiedu and Partners, the law firm occupying 21 Samora Machel Rd, also confirmed that they neither know nor are associated with Outcomes International.
According to Outcomes International’s Facebook page, the company can be located on Orgle Road, North Kaneshie at the coordinates 5.57888ºN, 0.23261ºW. When Fact-Check Ghana followed the coordinates, the team landed in front of Prince of Peace International School and WaterTech Limited, a civil engineering company. Both institutions say they have never heard about Outcomes International.
Address to the place of business the firm provided to the Office of Registrar of Companies during its registration leads to a residence near Van Medical St at Ashongman Estates, Accra. However, the occupants of the residence say they do not know about the research firm.
Offinso District NADMO Director is spokesperson for the research firm
Fact-Check Ghana’s enquiries revealed that when the press release detailing the so-called polling research was shared with the media, it contained a contact and a name for correspondence. The name is Elijah Mamoa.
When the team conducted a thorough search of who’s behind the name, we discovered that Elijah Momoa is the current Director of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) in the Offinso North District in the Ashanti Region (See here, here and here). Operating under the Ministry of Interior, NADMO is the government agency responsible for managing disasters and other emergencies in Ghana.
Mr Mamoa, stationed in Akomadan, the Offinso North District capital, has been the Director of NADMO in the area since 2019. Before his appointment, Elijah Mamoah was the spokesperson of the NPP Youth Group in the Yunyoo Constituency in the North East Region and an averred critic of John Mahama and the NDC.
Although Elijah Mamoa declined to comment on his work with Outcomes International, the contact he provided to the media is registered as a business account on Meta’s WhatsApp platform. The platform indicates that the business, named Elias Enterprise, is located in Akomadan, the capital of the Offinso North District. This detail further corroborates his connection to the number.
Gov’t employee and NPP stalwart who’s beneficiary owner of research firm
When Fact-Check Ghana ran a check on the persons behind Outcomes International at the Office of Registrar of Companies, four names were revealed. There are three beneficiary owners and one secretary of the company who registered the company in August 2022.
| Outcomes International | Names |
| Beneficiary Owners | Misiri Sa-Adu |
| Ibrahim Ismail | |
| Abdul Wahab Iddrisu | |
| Secretary | Alfred Asante |
After a thorough investigation, the team observed that the beneficiary owner of Outcomes International, Mirisi Sa-Adu, also known as Alhaji Misiri Sa-Adu, is a stalwart of the NPP in the Northern Region and is generally acknowledged for providing support to political appointees of the NPP in the region.
Our checks revealed that he’s a close associate of Akbar Yussif Rohullah Khomeini, Deputy Communications Director of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s Campaign and the Technical Adviser on Politics to the Office of the Vice President (See here). On his Facebook page, Akbar Yussif Rohullah Khomeini has often referred to Misiri Sa-Adu as a “big brother”, “mentor”, “confidante”, and one of the “pro-Bawumia elements” (See here, here, here, and here).
According to Misiri Sa-Adu’s own profile on LinkedIn, he is currently a full-time employee of the Northern Development Authority (NDA), formerly Savanah Development Authority (SADA). He works with the Research, Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Department of the NDA. In affirming this, on August 28, 2020, when the NDA announced on its official Facebook page that it moved to a new address and posted photos of its staff, Misiri Sa-Adu was one of them.
Mr Sa-Adu’s LinkedIn profile also reveals that he was a member of the government’s Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) in the Northern Region and a former Ghana Maritime Authority administrative officer. His profile says he was also a District Director of the National Service Secretariat in the Northern Region in 2006 during President Agyekum Kufour’s government until 2015.
Misiri Sa-Adu is also the Chief Executive Officer of Starry Research and Management Services, a subsidiary of Starry Company Limited, where he is also the Managing Director (MD).
According to its website, Starry Company Limited is also located at 21 Samora Machel Rd, Asylum Down, Accra but the firm cannot be found at the location.
Fact-Check Ghana’s investigations show that Starry Company Limited where Misiri Sa-Adu is MD has been contracted to build hospitals in Pusiga, Garu, and Tempane of Zone 6 of the government’s flagship Agenda 111 health project (See here and here). In August 2024, when representatives from the Public Interest Accountability Committee (PIAC) and Office of the President visited the Zone 6 site of the Agenda 111 project, Mr Sa-Adu was present with his Engineers to receive and take them around the project (here).
Thus, Misiri Sa-Adu, the beneficiary owner of Outcomes International is a prominent NPP supporter and a “pro-Bawumia element”. He’s also a government employee at the Northern Development Authority and Managing Director of a construction firm, Starry Company Limited, contracted by the government to build Agenda 111 hospitals in Pusiga, Garu, and Tempane.
Ibrahim Ismail, the other beneficiary owner of Outcomes International, is the Executive Management Assistant of Starry Research and Management Services. Alfred Asante, the Secretary, is the Operations Manager of Starry Research and Management Services.
Habibu Alidu whose contact number was published on Outcomes International’s Facebook page is Starry Research and Management Service’s Accountant.
Fact-Check Ghana did not find reliable information on Abdul Wahab Iddrisu.
The NPP UK connection of Outcomes International
On its website, Outcomes International states that it conducts its research with the Center for Sustainable African Development Initiatives (C-SADI), a research firm based in the UK.
Even though the website of the Center for Sustainable African Development Initiatives, is inactive, Fact-Check Ghana accessed it using the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive). Most of the staff of C-SADI are Ghanaians and one of them is an executive member of the NPP in the UK.
Kingsley Ahenkora-Duodo, a fellow of C-SADI, is a full-time academic—a Maths Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University—and a part-time politician. He’s the Deputy Youth Organiser of NPP’s UK Branch.
In June 2024 when Dr Bawumia and the NPP reportedly raised £1.2million at the Young Executives Forum in the UK, Dr Ahenkorah was one of the speakers at the fundraising dinner. He posted a video on his social media pages (here).
Responses
Fact-Check Ghana requested comments from the persons mentioned in this report. All of them but Alfred Asante, Secretary of Outcomes International, did not respond to the team’s calls and messages.
Alfred insisted that Outcomes International is an independent and credible research organisation and not one created for political propaganda. He added that it’s unfortunate the research works they have published are related to NPP polls.
Alfred Asante further argued that his organisation is located in the same building as Prisad Classic Collection, a boutique, located on the stretch of Samora Machel Rd at Asylum Down. However, the owner of the boutique told Fact-Check Ghana she does not know of Outcomes International or any research firm sharing the same building with her. She added that there had not been new offices in the building until recently in the year when a man secured a room in the space but has since not been using the room.
Despite his emphasis on credibility, Alfred Asante wouldn’t declare the source of funding for the polls.
“As for who is funding the research, I can’t disclose, but [it is] not from the NPP,” he said.
Watch out for a sequel to this story focusing on Outcomes International’s methodology used for the poll
Perfect traces 😀✌️