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Ghanaians have taken to social media to express their dismay at a decision to award salaries to the wives of the president and vice-president, equivalent to those of cabinet ministers.

Rebecca Akufo-Addo and Samira Bawumia will receive monthly payments of approximately $3,500 - back-dated to 2017.

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said spouses had always received allowances, and this was simply being formalized.

But critics say the move is unconstitutional, and immoral at a time of economic hardship. The youth wing of the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, has threatened to take legal action.

Justice Tankebem is a Ghanaian professor of Criminology who's based in the UK.

"It seems a strange ethical decision... Young people have this campaign called 'fix the country' drawing attention to the state of education, of health, of criminal justice... and these things are not being addressed. And to have a political elite that appears to be concerned more with their own wellbeing rather than that of the citizen adds to the anger."

(Photo: Rebecca Akufo-Addo and her husband, the president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo. Credit: AFP)

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