Ghana

The government is taking a number of measures to strengthen Ghana’s business environment in a bid to reinforce growth as the country struggles with a rising import bill due to a depreciating cedi.

Ghana’s growing population, buoyant economy and favourable investment environment make its real estate market increasingly dynamic. In spite of complicated issues over local lending and land ownership, demand for housing spans the entire spectrum of the population, from wealthy Ghanaians and a growing number of expatriates through a rising middle class to lower-income groups.

Encouraged by the rapid development of its nascent oil sector – which began production in record time and helped push GDP growth up to 13.6% in 2011 – Ghana is hoping to cash in equally as quickly on its natural gas reserves but is still navigating the sizeable infrastructural hurdles that need to be overcome in the short term.

Rising incomes among the growing middle class are feeding optimism in retail property in Ghana, which currently has one of the continent’s fastest-expanding economies. Ghana’s GDP is expected to grow by 7.3% this year in real terms, thanks in part to the continuing influx of capital associated with the burgeoning oil and gas sector.

The second-largest gold producer in Africa, Ghana is looking to maximise the benefits of the mining industry for the overall economy, both by revising licensing procedures and levying tariffs on the sector. It is hoped this will increase local participation in service provision, though some of the measures have provoked concern amongst sector operators.

Ghana’s banking sector has seen substantial expansion in recent years, after a central bank push for higher recapitalisation requirements led to a quadrupling of bank capitalisation from end-2008 to end-2011. The Bank of Ghana (BOG) is now encouraging banks to list on the stock exchange to spur growth in the wider economy.