Scale Up High-Growth Sectors, Fix Weak Links — GSS to Govt

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has urged government to consolidate Ghana’s recent economic gains while tackling structural weaknesses in key extractive and natural resource sectors.

This follows a stronger end to 2025, with the economy expanding by 5.8 per cent in the fourth quarter, up from 4.0 per cent in the same period of 2024, an indication of improving year-on-year momentum.

In its latest assessment, the GSS advised policymakers to sustain growth by deepening support for high-performing sectors, particularly information and communication technology (ICT), crops, manufacturing, transport and logistics, education, and financial services. At the same time, it stressed the need to address persistent underperformance in oil and gas, mining, forestry, and other contracting activities, which continue to weigh on broader industrial expansion.

The statistical authority further highlighted the importance of sustained investment in agricultural productivity, agro-processing, logistics infrastructure, digital systems, and industrial value chains. Such targeted interventions, it noted, are essential to maintaining non-oil growth and diversifying the country’s economic base.

Households have also been encouraged to adapt to the evolving economic landscape by strengthening financial resilience. The GSS recommended prudent spending, rebuilding savings, and investing in skills aligned with fast-growing sectors such as digital services, agriculture value chains, and transport and logistics to better capture emerging opportunities.

For businesses, the guidance is clear: align investment and expansion strategies with the most dynamic segments of the economy. The GSS identified information and communication, transport and storage, manufacturing, agriculture value chains, education services, and financial services as critical drivers of growth. Firms were additionally advised to enhance productivity, adopt technology, manage operational costs, and diversify supply chains in response to uneven sectoral performance.

Data presented by the Government Statistician, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, showed that Ghana’s economy remains firmly services-led. The services sector expanded by 8.1 per cent, contributing 58.2 per cent of total GDP growth and accounting for 45.9 per cent of overall economic activity. In comparison, industry and agriculture accounted for 31.3 per cent and 22.8 per cent of GDP respectively.

Within the services sector, digital and knowledge-based activities were the primary growth engines. Information and Communication led with a 20.2 per cent expansion, followed by Education (11.6 per cent), Transport and Storage (8.6 per cent), and Financial and Insurance Activities (6.8 per cent).

Dr Iddrisu emphasised the concentration of growth drivers within a limited number of sectors, stating that “A small number of sectors drove most of the growth: Information and Communication, Crops, Gold, Manufacturing, Transport and Storage, and Education together contributed about 87% of total GDP growth in 2025, highlighting the main engines of economic expansion.”

On income indicators, GDP per capita rose significantly to GH¢42,502 in 2025 from GH¢35,834 in 2024, representing an 18.6 per cent increase. In dollar terms, per capita income grew by 33.9 per cent from US$2,527 to US$3,385, supported in part by exchange rate appreciation.

Sectoral performance in the fourth quarter reflected a broad-based, albeit uneven, recovery. Non-oil GDP growth accelerated to 7.1 per cent, up from 4.8 per cent a year earlier, underscoring the growing importance of non-extractive sectors in driving expansion.

Agriculture recorded improved performance, growing by 5.3 per cent compared with 3.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, largely driven by a 6.6 per cent increase in crops. Cocoa also returned to growth at 3.0 per cent after a sharp contraction of 12.8 per cent in the same period the previous year.

Industry, while showing signs of recovery, remained constrained. Growth stood at 1.9 per cent, up from 0.3 per cent in the previous year, but was significantly impacted by a 16.8 per cent contraction in oil and gas production. This was despite positive contributions from manufacturing, which grew by 6.1 per cent, and electricity, which expanded by 7.2 per cent.

The services sector continued to anchor overall performance, expanding by 8.6 per cent in the fourth quarter. It accounted for 50.6 per cent of GDP and contributed 63.4 per cent of total economic growth, reinforcing its central role in Ghana’s economic trajectory.