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Overview: 

Ghana is a country of 31 million people with a fast-growing, young, globally and digitally connected population. Beyond its traditional industries of agriculture, mining - and more recently, oil and gas production – Ghana’s digital, financial services, construction, education, and franchising sectors are growing fast.   

Ghana’s developing healthcare system, tourism sector, roads, rail, shipping, and port infrastructure offer opportunities for U.S. companies. Ghana’s Atlantic ports and daily direct flights from the United States make it an excellent platform for doing business in Africa. As the host to the new African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, Ghana is at the heart of Africa’s transformative regional integration. 

There are several business hotels in Accra. Restaurants offering Ghanaian cuisine as well as food from around the world are plentiful. Taxis are available at the airport and other ridesharing services (Uber, Bolt, Yango) are well established in the market. Money can be exchanged for Ghanaian Cedis at Kotoka International Airport or at hotels and at some banks.  ATMs accepting international bank cards are plentiful in Ghana’s city centres. Kumasi offers a few hotels that meet international business standards; other locations offer several budgets to mid-priced hotels. 

Ghana enjoys a vibrant media, with more than 350 radio stations, 120 television operators, and 250 newspaper and magazine publications. Many media outlets have a website and social media presence.  

Economy 

Although Ghana’s economy expanded at an average of seven percent per year from 2017 to 2019, growth slowed to 0.5 percent in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. While growth increased to 5.4 percent in 2021, high government debt and the failure to adequately pursue fiscal consolidation of government finances closed international capital markets to Ghana.  Combined with global dynamics, this fuelled a steep currency depreciation and inflation that reached over 50 percent in 2022. In response to the economic crisis, the government concluded a staff level agreement with the IMF for a $3 billion, 3-year Extended Credit Facility, which was approved by the IMF board in May 2023. With its debt levels determined to be unsustainable, the Government of Ghana announced a standstill on external debt payments in December and embarked on a domestic debt exchange to restructure outstanding domestic bonds. Given the current economic climate, growth in 2023 is expected to slow to 1.5 percent from 3.2 percent in 2022, according to the IMF.  

The main sub-sectors that expanded in 2022 (year-on-year) were Gold Mining (32%); Information & Communication (20%); Education (10%); Health & Social Works (9%); Fishing (9%); Public Administration & Defense, Social Security (6%); Financial and Insurance Activities (6%); Livestock (6%); and Transport and Storage (5%). The economy remains highly dependent on the export of primary commodities such as gold, cocoa, and oil, and is vulnerable to slowdowns in the global economy and commodity price shocks. Other challenges to Ghana’s economy include access to foreign capital at an affordable rate, low internally generated government revenue, and inefficient state-owned enterprises. Private consumption (69.6% of GDP in 2021) has been dampened by the current economic dynamics.  

The domestic currency, the cedi, depreciated by 30 percent against the U.S. dollar in 2022.  Interest rates in Ghana continue to be high mainly because of the monetary policy of the Central Bank, including its attempts to curb inflation, as well as borrowers’ high default rate. The monetary policy rate, which serves as the basis for most commercial banks determining their interest rate, is at 29.5 percent as of May 2023. 

The top countries supplying Ghana’s merchandise imports in 2022 (the last year in which full international data is available) included: China (18%, a decline from 23% in 2021); Togo (11%, likely reflecting a new pattern of transhipment to Ghana from Togo’s port of Lomé); the United States (8%); India (6%); the Netherlands (6%), Belgium (5%); the United Kingdom (3%). 

Ghana’s exports also included cocoa bean, paste and butter, apparel, rubber, and cassava.  Ghana’s top global exports include cocoa, gold, and oil.  Ghana’s top global export markets include Switzerland (27%), India (15%), South Africa (12%), United States (6%), Germany (6%), China (5%) and Burkina Faso 4%).   

Further, Ghana’s services imports and exports have grown exponentially in recent years. Ghana’s growth in imports of services has been one of the fastest in Sub Saharan Africa. Ghana imported $12 billion in all types of services from the world in 2020 and exported approximately $9 billion in the same year. This growth is led by imports of business services, a category that includes computer and related services, as well as architectural/engineering, legal, accountancy and advertising services. Inward travel/tourism as well as freight services are other growth areas.  

These have given Ghana one of the highest GDPs per capita in Africa. 

Trade: https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/ 

https://oec.world/en/profile/country/gha 

Workforce: https://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx 

Consumer Price Index of Country: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL 

Inflation Rates: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/country-list/inflation-rate 

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.WPI.TOTL