Ghana sits on the Atlantic Ocean and borders Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso. Its population is about 34.4 million (2024). In the past two decades, it has taken major strides towards democracy under a multi-party system, with its independent judiciary winning public trust.
Ghana is a country of 34 million people with a fast-growing, young, globally and digitally connected population. Fifty-six percent of Ghana’s population is under the age of 25. Ghana is a significant exporter and importer. Ghana’s Atlantic ports and daily direct flights make it an excellent platform for doing business in Africa.
President John Dramani Mahama was elected in the December 2024 elections. Mr. Mahama’s administration faces a challenging environment in leading Ghana on a path of debt sustainability by enhancing fiscal discipline, expanding tax revenue, and completing the debt restructuring with external creditors under the IMF program.
The country’s capital, Accra, is a bustling metropolitan area that is home to roughly two million people. Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region north of Accra, is another large population center and an active commercial center with roughly the same population.
Ghana has a rich diversity of ethnic groups, each with its own unique culture and way of life. The major ethnic groups are Akans (45.7%), Mole Dagbon (18.5%), Ewe (12.8%), Ga-Dangme (7.1%), Gurma (6.4%), Guan (3.2%), Grusi (2.7%), Mandi (2.0%), and other (1.6%). Less than 1 % of the population is non-Ghanaian, and 90 % of that population comes from other ECOWAS countries.
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The official language and the language of business is English, which is the primary medium of instruction in all schools. Ghanaians speak local languages, as well, and many are conversant in several.
Ghanaians are known to be very hospitable people. They are also very religious, with roughly 95% engaging in an organized religion. Approximately 71% of the population is Christian, 19% is Muslim, 5% adheres to indigenous or animistic religious beliefs, and the remaining 5% belongs to other religious groups or has no religious beliefs.
Traditional leaders such as chiefs and queen mothers continue to play an important role in many aspects of daily life, especially in terms of regulating social norms in rural areas and in controlling land and other natural resources. Companies may need to develop relationships with traditional leaders, particularly if they are pursuing large projects in the leader’s area of jurisdiction.
Although there are occasional disagreements in rural areas among ethnic groups, mainly over land ownership or traditional leadership succession, Ghana has enjoyed peaceful transitions of government following elections for more than three decades.
At present, Delta operates a daily, direct flight to Accra from New York (JFK), and United operates frequent flights to Accra from Washington, Dulles (IAD). International visitors arriving by air will enter Accra through Kotoka International Airport.
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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 Uber and other ridesharing services 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 centers. Kumasi offers a few hotels that meet international business standards; other locations offer several budget to mid-priced hotels.
Ghana enjoys a vibrant media, with more than 350 radio stations, 120 television operators, and 250 newspaper and magazine publications.
Economy
Ghana has achieved significant economic and social progress over three decades, attaining middle-income status in 2011. More than 20% of the population continue to experience poverty, with rates exceeding 50% in northern regions.
In 2022, a combination of policy challenges and external factors contributed to a macroeconomic crisis, resulting in the closure of international markets, depreciation of the cedi, increased inflation, and decreased private credit due to domestic borrowing. Growth fell to 3.8% (2022); debt reached 92.6% of GDP. Ghana launched an IMF-supported recovery program, including comprehensive debt restructuring.
By 2024, Ghana successfully executed a $13 billion Eurobond exchange and entered a Memorandum of Understanding with the Official Creditor Committee. In 2025, Eurobond service resumed, and domestic coupon payments continued.
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Stabilization has improved conditions, with 2024 growth at 5.7% and 2nd quarter of 2025 real GDP up 6.3% year on year, led by services and agriculture. The cedi appreciated sharply, supported by policy tightening and improved reserves. Inflation eased to 11.5% in August 2025. The external position strengthened, with a current account surplus and rising reserves.
Fiscal adjustment in 2025 aims for a 1.5% GDP primary surplus, with spending restraint and no new arrears. Financial soundness is broadly stable, though Non-Performing Loans remain high and with real private credit growth being negative. Output growth is projected to soften to 4.3% in 2025 as fiscal adjustment and global uncertainty weigh on demand. Medium-term prospects will be dependent on stabilization, reforms, and new oil production.
Lower inflation and increased growth in agriculture and services should reduce the Low- and Middle-Income poverty rate to 53.3% by 2025. In Ghana, electrification rates have gradually increased over the past 20 years, with power now reaching over 85% of the population. The country relies on a diversified energy mix and hosts the largest hydropower project in West Africa.
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. In 2023, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate reached 2.9%. GDP grew to 5.7% in 2024. That year, approximately 47% of Ghana’s GDP was generated by the services sector, 31% by manufacturing/mining, and 22% by agriculture. In 2024, output in the services sector grew by 5.8%, while manufacturing and mining expanded by 9.3%. Services and agriculture employ 41 and 39% of Ghanaians, respectively. 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.
Interest rates in Ghana continue to be high (25% and above), mainly because of Central Bank’s monetary policy and efforts to curb inflation as well borrowers’ high default rate. The Ghanaian market, and its urban centers, are price sensitive.
Rising deficits and debt have increased macroeconomic risks and financing costs in recent years.
Change in per capita GDP of Ghana, 1870-2018.
Key Economic Indicators (1980-2023)
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980-2023.
| Year | GDP growth | Inflation rate | Government debt (% of GDP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | -6.1% | 50.0% | n/a |
| 1990 | 3.3% | 37.2% | n/a |
| 2000 | 3.7% | 40.4% | n/a |
| 2010 | 8.0% | 9.1% | 37.9% |
| 2020 | 0.9% | 10.4% | 76.1% |
| 2023 | 2.9% | n/a | n/a |
Trade and Investment
Ghana is a member country of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement. The 54 countries participating in the AfCFTA - all countries on the African continent except for Eritrea - represent 1.3 billion people with an estimated combined GDP of $3.4 trillion. By reducing barriers to trade and investment, the AfCFTA aims to integrate the signatories into a larger, more profitable regional market with greater economies of scale.
The United States is not a party to the AfCFTA agreement. However, many of the reforms envisioned in this landmark regional integration effort will improve overall conditions for trade and investment in Africa. Specifically, improved customs processes and procedures, the reduction of non-tariff barriers, more harmonized standards and certification procedures, and common rules for digital trade can ease the movement of goods, services, and digital trade in Africa.
The AfCFTA Agreement phases out a web of 170 different intra-African Bilateral Investment Treaties by 2028 and creates a more harmonized framework for inward investment in AfCFTA member countries. Member countries will revamp aspects of their current inward investment legislation as a result.
Investors and economic operators that grow, mine, or produce goods in member countries of the AfCFTA and that meet the product-specific rules of origin under the Goods Protocol should be able to take advantage of tariff preferences when exporting those goods to other AfCFTA markets.
The AfCFTA Services Protocol will also address regulatory frameworks for the market access and national treatment provisions, further defining the outcomes. In 2025, international companies established in member countries should start to gain a better sense of how these outcomes could impact their business.
The AfCFTA Secretariat coordinates and facilitates the implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement among African states. It also engages stakeholders to promote the AfCFTA and undertakes trade and investment promotion activities to enhance intra-African trade, among other duties.
Ghana aims to be the gateway to the larger West African market. Ghana is a significant exporter and importer, with total exports of all products estimated at $4.03 billion and imports estimated at $9.08 billion in 2008. Ghana’s agricultural product imports in 2008 are estimated to have remained at $1 billion according to unpublished customs data.
Ghana’s top export products in 2016 were crude petroleum ($2.66B), gold ($2.39B), cocoa beans ($2.27B), cocoa paste ($382M) and cocoa butter ($252M). Ghana's top import categories in 2016 were refined petroleum ($2.18B), crude petroleum ($546M), gold ($428M), rice ($328M) and packaged medicaments ($297M).
multinationals in Ghana stood at $4.7 billion in 2022, the last year for which data was reported. direct investment position in Ghana (outward) was $1.6 billion, a decrease of 2.7% from 2022.
The United States exported $967 million in merchandise goods to Ghana in 2024. exports included: passenger and other vehicles and parts, oil and gas-related products, plastics and chemicals products, guts and bladders, wood pulp, poultry, civil aircraft parts, telecommunications equipment, and earth moving equipment. In 2024, Ghana imported more than $17 billion in merchandise goods from global partners. The top countries supplying those imports in that period were: China (23%), the EU27 (15%), the United Arab Emirates (9%, driven by Ghana’s gold for oil program); the United Kingdom (7%,); India (7%); the United States (5%); Switzerland (3.5%), Russia (2.5%) and South Africa (2%), among others.
Ghana’s exports to the United States totaled $1.2 billion in 2024. A great deal of this trade was comprised of Ghanaian exports of crude oil to the United States. Ghana’s exports also included: cocoa bean; liquor and butter; apparel; rubber; and cassava. Ghana’s top global exports include cocoa, gold, and oil. Ghana’s top global export markets include Switzerland (gold and cocoa), United Arab Emirates (gold), South Africa (gold, oil, rubber), China (oil, manganese, aluminum), India (gold), Canada (oil and cocoa), Netherlands (cocoa, shea), Burkina Faso (various), Brazil (oil and cocoa), and the United States (cocoa, oil, rubber, lead).
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. In 2020 (the latest year for which data is available), Ghana imported $12 billion in all types of services from the world and exported approximately $9 billion 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. proportion of Ghana’s $12 billion in services imports are not available. companies play a very significant role in Ghana’s services sector. ICT services providers in the market (see ICT section). The number of Ghanaians studying in the United States is growing (an educational export for the United States). services exports to Ghana.
The financial services in Ghana have seen a lot of reforms in the past years. The Banking (Amendment) Act 2007 included the awarding of a general banking license to qualified banks, which allows only indigenous Ghana offshore banks to operate in Ghana.
The Stock Exchange of Ghana is one of the largest in Africa, with a market capitalization of GH¢57.2 billion or CN¥180.4 billion in 2012.
Key Sectors
Ghana continues to upgrade its electricity transmission and distribution systems with assistance from a range of international development partners, with the goal of becoming a regional exporter of power. Ghana previously had excess power capacity, but that excess is diminishing.
Renewable energy (other than hydro power) currently accounts for about one percent of total power generation but the government has a stated goal to increase renewable energy to ten percent of total power production by 2020.
Oil and gas production creates opportunities for auxiliary services companies. The Ghanaian government is strongly pursuing the expansion of local value-added processing.
The Ghanaian construction industry has proven to be resilient, especially commercial real estate, given Ghana’s strong population growth. Major construction activities include roads, highways and bridges, coastal works, and residential buildings. Developers’ ability to find appropriate financing is a key factor to success. Construction equipment, including re-conditioned equipment, is likely to continue to be a promising sub-sector.
ICT services and digital trade, fintech, healthcare, and education are also high growth sectors. Please see the dedicated sections below.
Ghana has an important role to play in global supply chain resilience as a source of bauxite, manganese, and lithium. It also hosts a massive e-waste site with some private recycling that offers potential for e-waste recycling to obtain metals and critical minerals such as copper, nickel, indium, palladium, gallium, and tantalum.
The mining sector, including gold, bauxite, manganese, diamonds, and salt is a major contributor to the Ghanaian economy.
As oil and gas production shows moderate growth, opportunities for auxiliary services to the industry will continue to rise. Although Nigeria remains the sectorial hub for West Africa, the relative ease of doing business in Ghana likely will attract a greater number of companies to establish a local or even regional presence in the market.
Ghana discovered significant reserves of oil and natural gas offshore throughout the 2000s and 2010s. The country officially became an oil & gas producer in 2010 with the commissioning of the Jubilee field by Tullow Oil and currently produces from three major offshore hubs: Jubilee, TEN, and OCTP.
Ghana has aggressively begun the construction of solar plants across its sun-rich land in an aim to become the first country to get 6% of its energy from solar energy generation. Ghana has Class 4-6 wind resources and high-wind locations, such as Nkwanta, the Accra Plains, and Kwahu and Gambaga mountains.
Ghana has 5 billion barrels (790×106 m3) to 7 billion barrels (1.1×109 m3) of petroleum in reserves. A large oilfield which contains up to 3 billion barrels (480×106 m3) of sweet crude oil was discovered in 2007.
The Ministry of Tourism has placed great emphasis upon further tourism support and development. Tourism contributed to 4.9% of GDP in 2009, attracting around 500,000 visitors. In 2011, Forbes magazine ranked Ghana eleventh-friendliest country in the world. The assertion was based on a survey of a cross-section of travelers in 2010.
Kakum National Park.
Market Opportunities in the Food Sector
Ghana’s growing population of 32 million is youthful with an increasingly fast emerging middle-class. 58% of Ghana’s population was urban in 2021. Migration to the capital and southern parts of the country were expected to continue in 2022 and beyond, potentially boosting the demand for high-value products (HVPs) and making consumers reachable.
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