Ghana

Generally, 2017 was a challenging year for Ghana’s accountants. In February Ken Ofori-Atta, the minister of finance, announced that over three years of off-the-books spending by the previous government had opened a GHS7bn ($1.7bn) hole in the budget, revealing the next day that the figures could be even higher.

Low oil prices have had a significant impact on producers. According to a 2015 study by consultancy Wood Mackenzie, following the price drop, well over $200bn in spending on oil and gas projects around the world has been deferred, and roughly 250,000 industry employees globally have lost their jobs. This has been magnified in commodity-...

Ghana’s emerging real estate sector contributes significantly to the development of the economy as far as housing is concerned. The government has helped to establish the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association as an initiative for public and private sector participation in housing investment and delivery. The association was formally...

Given the open regulatory framework, continued interest from foreign investors and current low penetration rate, there is strong potential for growth in the Ghanaian insurance sector. The industry is working to design and market products for uninsured populations, including the emerging middle class and those in the informal sector. For its...

A bill updating the 1993 Securities Industry Law is slowly making its way through the halls of Ghana’s Parliament. The existing law has become out of step with many of the advances of an increasingly global market. The new legislation would seek to tighten regulation, increase transparency, better facilitate cross-border transactions and allow...

Even amid the low global oil price environment, Ghana’s energy sector continues to evolve in a positive fashion, with deregulation implemented in the downstream sector and two new oil and gas fields coming on-line. The long-awaited benefits of the country’s oil and gas reserves are also beginning to be felt by the power sector, with the...