Industry & Retail

While Ghana boasts a number of advantages for manufacturers, including access to a 300m-person regional market, a host of raw material inputs and competitive labour costs, 2014 was a particularly challenging year for the industrial sector. In large part this was due to a declining currency, power shortages, limited credit and high overhead costs. Nevertheless, industry still accounts for 28.4% of GDP and generated output worth $8.5bn in 2014. The government’s goal is to increase annual revenues from non-traditional exports from $2.3bn to $5bn by 2017, as well as reduce the trade deficit. While the Ghanaian retail market is relatively untapped, rising incomes suggests its time is coming. Research indicates that over 479,000 households, or 9% of the total, will be in the $10,000-per-year-plus bracket by end-2015. With a large and growing middle class benefitting from higher disposable incomes, retail spending is expected to reach $11bn by 2019.