Ghana’s economy in the first nine months of this year has chalked remarkable success within both the fiscal and monetary space.
These successes realign the economy to pre-COVID key performance indicators, with the latest inflation figure pegged at 9.4 percent for September year-on-year, and for the first half-year of 2025 year on year Gross Domestic Product stood at 6.3% according to Ghana Statistical Service data. Ghana’s external and domestic debt significantly lowered to sustainable level, decreasing to 44.9% as at July 2025 showing a sharp decline from 61.8% as at December 2024, and much lower than initial IMF and Fitch forecasts.
On the monetary front, the Bank of Ghana’s policy rate is currently pegged at 21.50% and foreign exchange rates of the Ghana cedi to the major international trading currencies have significantly strengthened and stabilised with the cedi being adjudged as the strongest currency in Africa for the first eight months of 2025.
However, to maintain these successes, an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Ghana has strongly urged the government to diversify Ghana’s economic production base to project sustainable growth.
“Our production base is too narrow. We import almost everything. And as the growing middle class comes up, we are becoming much more import dependent rather than self-sufficient”, Professor Festus Ebo Turkson said while speaking during a UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Deloitte Ghana seminar last week, cautioning that, Ghana’s economy remains too dependent on imports and vulnerable to external shocks.
Prof. Turkson argued that diversifying Ghana’s economy production base starts with supporting local farmers and driving deliberate demand for Ghanaian produce. This demand, he said, must not be left to market forces but should be intentionally cultivated through government policies.
“Adding value to and demanding local produce will boost their productivity. Once we produce enough for export, we can then produce for import substitutes,” he noted.
This falls directly in line with the call made by the Government Statistician on the government to expand local food production, maintaining effective policy coordination among others to anchor the current success in achieving single-digit inflation.
Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu emphasised that the achievement, while significant, is only the beginning.
“We can actually do this by continuing to do what we are doing, which is keeping the inflation down,” he said on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Wednesday October 8, adding “This will include keeping public spending discipline, supporting local food production and also maintaining policy coordination.”
He warned against complacency, noting that although inflation has fallen, prices are still rising just at a slower pace.
“This is not the time to relax at all. In fact, inflation of 9.4% still means that on average, we are seeing the general price level increasing by 9.4% between September of last year and September of this year,” he explained.
Dr. Iddrisu described the return to single-digit inflation as progress, but said the real challenge now is ensuring that it can be sustained over the long term.
On the human capital, Prof Turkson explained that Ghana’s human resource quality has improved from a “low” to a “moderate” scale over the past two decades a good foundation for light manufacturing.
“What we need now is to tailor education to the needs of industry,” he said, calling for investment into soft infrastructure to enhance youth training and promote the use of appropriate, labour-intensive technologies.
Incentivizing firms to create jobs
Prof Turkson further suggested that providing incentives for firms that adopt technology while creating jobs would guarantee a steady stream of revenue needed to fuel further growth.
“This is the way we can develop. That is what we call transformation,” he concluded.
Enhancing Ghana’s investment climate
Meanwhile, Cheryl Otoo, a Senior Manager at Deloitte Ghana, highlighted Ghana’s regulatory complexity and infrastructure deficits as two of the biggest constraints to investment. To this, Wisdom Kpano, Partner at Deloitte Ghana, recommended that the government channel resources into agriculture and agro-processing, renewable energy, and oil and gas – sectors with high potential for inclusive growth.
Also, Nicolas Jørgensen Gebara, CEO of the European Chamber of Commerce in Ghana, pointed to mining and digital transformation, especially in the context of the government’s 24-Hour Economy Policy, while Osman Aziz, Senior Investment Officer at Venture Capital Trust Fund, underscored the need to bridge the gap between education and industry needs.
For Prof. Turkson, resolving these systemic bottlenecks and creating an enabling environment for private sector growth must be central to government policy.
Investor Opportunity Mapping Project – a step forward
The Government’s 24-Hour Economy Policy has prioritised agribusiness and agro-processing and is encouraging the youth to participate in farming to supply raw materials for industry.
Through the Ghana Investment Promotions Centre (GIPC), the government is also pursuing the establishment of robust manufacturing, building and construction, and ICT sectors, and is currently identifying projects nationwide for targeted investment.
Kwame Kesse Agyapong, the Head of the Investment Promotion and Business Development Division (IP&BD) at GIPC, shared that the recently launched Investor Opportunity Mapping Project will survey all districts in Ghana to identify viable projects aligned with the government’s priorities.
“After mapping them out, we will host the international and domestic community next year to showcase these projects and attract capital,” Agyapong remarked.
Mr Kpano commended the initiative, especially for its potential to generate valuable investment data. He, however, urged the GIPC to track the impact of actual investments, as well as track its expansion by focusing on investments existing local businesses are making, not just new foreign ones.
“A lot of fully owned Ghanaian businesses do not know that you can be members of the GIPC. We should do more to raise awareness across regions so these existing businesses, whether Ghanaian owned or foreign owned, can understand these opportunities and access them,” he advised.
By Adnan Adams Mohammed
