- Starting a business in Ghana is too hard – the system scored only 12/100, much worse than other similar countries. This pushes many businesses to operate unofficially.
- Ghana has good rules for handling failed businesses (76/100 score), which helps protect investors when companies go under.
- The Bank raised interest rates to 28% to fight inflation, but the government lowered its own borrowing costs at the same time. This mixed message could hurt small businesses facing 30%+ loan rates.
- The cedi lost 5.3% of its value, making imports more expensive (especially food prices up 28%) but helping local producers compete.
- Business confidence improved to 99.7/100, helped by big foreign investments like $450 million from IFC.
- Ghana’s energy sector has major problems – 1,300 containers of equipment went missing and the budget was cut in half, risking power cuts.
- New tax cuts (like removing the mobile money tax) should help businesses, but only if properly implemented.
- Small businesses still struggle to get loans because Ghana’s credit system is weak (44/100 score).
- Big companies dominate the market (37/100 competition score), making it hard for small businesses to compete.
- The government and central bank are working against each other on interest rates, which may keep prices rising.
Ghana has improved some business rules and attracted investment, but still needs to fix its business startup process, help small companies, stabilize the currency, clean up the energy sector, and get government policies working together.
