Several Facebook posts are advertising free online courses, purportedly funded by the government of Ghana. Some of the posts found here, here, here, and here claim that the opportunity is for people aged between 18 and 85 years.
The ads encourage people to “Learn valuable digital skills from Home! Get free certified online courses in Business I.T., Hospitality, and more. Perfect for students, job seekers, and professionals. Start now and build your future— it’s 100% free!”
One of the posts on Facebook had 6.2k reactions, 349 comments, and 333 shares at the time of filing this report. Another post reads, “The Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Ghana has decided to provide free online courses to citizens aged 18 and 80 from April 2025 to help them find high-paying jobs after completing their studies.”
The ad features a picture of Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, and promises to issue certificates after the course.
A review of the comments on some of the posts revealed that many people believed the material was genuine and originated from the Ghanaian government, and expressed interest in enrolling in the courses.
However, clicking the link and reviewing the website raises some red flags. For instance, the website makes no mention of any connection with the government of Ghana. The website only leads to a page listing several tertiary institutions, most of them outside Ghana.
With every new visit to the website, a fresh list of tertiary institutions appears.
Managed from abroad
Some of the Facebook pages running the ads, such as this, this, and this, were created barely six months ago, and none has a fully set-up account or a single post.
This raises suspicion that they were created ostensibly to promote these ads.
Further checks via Facebook’s page transparency feature showed that people in Ghana managed none of the pages.
The page administrators were based in countries such as India, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, and Cambodia.
This again raises suspicion about the genuineness of the supposed free courses the page claims are being offered by the Government of Ghana, when those behind the pages promoting it are based outside the country.
By harnessing the Meta ads library, a database of all the ads running on Meta’s platforms, it was discovered that besides Ghana, some of the pages highlighted were running similar ads in different countries, including Botswana, Germany, Poland, Spain, and Italy.
Each of these ads was accordingly adjusted to suit each country.
For instance, the ad targeting Germany also had text announcing free educational courses.
Financial motivation?
The ads are clickbait intended to lure people into clicking on them. As soon as one clicks on any of the links, they are taken to the page where the university ads are posted.
Clickbait refers to headlines that persuade users to click on them by evoking curiosity and intrigue.
The ultimate purpose of clickbait is to drive traffic and increase a site’s visitors. In the case of posts advertising free online courses in Ghana, the more people click on the university’s links, the more traffic it attracts, and the more money the promoters are likely to make.
Conclusion
It is not true that the government of Ghana has announced free courses for people between the ages of 18 and 85. It is a deceptive strategy employed by individuals in foreign countries to lure citizens of target countries into clicking on posted links, thereby profiting financially.