Ghana can create better jobs through accelerated economic transformation – World Bank

Ghana has an opportunity in the coming decades, to accelerate economic transformation and create more and better jobs, after navigating through the heights of the pandemic.

It can achieve this through fostering greater global integration, technological transformation, macroeconomic stability, and financial sector development, says the World Bank’s latest economic analysis for the country.

The newly released Country Economic Memorandum, Ghana Rising – Accelerating Economic Transformation and Creating Higher Quality Jobs says Ghana has all it takes to continue being an economic development star if it takes the right steps to nurture growth and job creation.

“Ghana faces an acute challenge of generating more and better jobs and has a ‘missing middle’ of employment in mid productivity sectors”, notes Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone. “This is the time for Ghana to fill that ‘missing middle’ by cultivating export-oriented activities in both manufacturing and services and harnessing the transformative potential of trade; it faces a historic opportunity to do so with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).”
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The report highlights four main pillars for accelerating economic transformation and improving job outcomes:

To create jobs, Ghana will need to drive sectoral transformation through the movement of workers into higher productivity firms and sectors and spatial transformation through trade, urbanization, and connectivity. ‘Global innovator’ services, in particular ICT and business services, could play a critical role.

To deliver productivity growth and boost innovation and entrepreneurship, it will need to drive technological transformation through the adoption of digital and complementary technologies in domestic firms. To enable this change it will be key to improve internet connectivity, invest in foundational skills and advanced digital skills, and facilitate technology adoption for firms.

To support more inclusive private sector development, Ghana will need to leverage the financial sector to facilitate firm expansion, technology adoption and innovation.

To enable long-term inclusive growth, Ghana will need to double down on macro-fiscal stability, natural resources management and revenue mobilization (to generate the revenues to fund reforms for economic transformation). Environmental taxation can boost revenues while helping to minimize the impact of climate change on households and incentivize sustainable land use.

“This report lays out three scenarios for an accelerated economic transformation for better jobs” adds David Elmaleh, World Bank Senior Economist, and co-author of the report. “Without reforms, in a ‘business as usual’ scenario, Ghana’s economy is currently projected to reach upper-middle-income status by 2037, while under a ‘bright horizons’ scenario, which includes the adoption of some key reforms to drive economic transformation, Ghana’s economy could reach upper-middle-income status by 2032. However, under a ‘pitfalls’ scenario, Ghana would have to wait until 2040. The greatest impact on GDP would be from reforms to raise the productivity of export-oriented global innovator services and manufacturing. This can start now, under the new budget.”