Ghana’s economy grew by six per cent in 2025, reaching GH¢1.4 trillion, but the expansion has not translated into the creation of enough decent jobs, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) said in a report launched in Accra on Thursday.
The maiden Ghana in Numbers report, highlighted strong macroeconomic performance in 2025, including a decline in inflation, a reduced fiscal deficit and improved international reserves.
A breakdown of the data showed that the services sector accounted for 45.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2025, followed by industry at 31.3 per cent and agriculture at 22.8 per cent.
Inflation fell sharply from 23.8 per cent in December 2024 to 5.4 per cent in December 2025, while gross international reserves reached US$13.8 billion, equivalent to 5.7 months of import cover.
Speaking at the launch, the Government Statistician, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, said the report identified 2.64 million businesses in 2024, including enterprises operating in open spaces and mobile businesses.
He noted that the number of business establishments operating in buildings nearly tripled between 2014 and 2024, while the number of people employed by them only doubled.
That, he said, indicated that business formation was growing faster than employment opportunities.
According to the report, nine out of every 10 establishments employed between one and five people. Only 4,874 establishments had 100 or more workers, while just 7.7 per cent were formally registered.
Highlighting the disconnect between economic growth and job creation, Dr Iddrisu said labour force participation increased from 67.1 per cent in 2022 to 74.5 per cent in 2025, while the unemployment rate averaged 12.8 per cent during the first three quarters of 2025.
“We have close to two million young people who were not working, studying or training. And in fact, if we take the people Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) group, women made up more than 60 per cent,” he said.
To address the challenge, the Government Statistician recommended that policymakers shift greater attention to the informal sector and young people who were not in employment, education or training.
He urged the government to adopt policies and programmes that would make economic growth more employment-intensive, including initiatives to formalise the 92 per cent of businesses operating informally and targeted interventions to support the nearly two million young people in the NEET category.
Dr Iddrisu also called for increased access to affordable private-sector credit, which he said stood at 7.4 per cent of GDP, as well as region-specific employment policies. He further urged policymakers to use data from the Ghana in Numbers portal to guide national and regional planning.
The Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Thomas Nyarko Ampem, acknowledged the challenge of economic growth failing to generate sufficient jobs for the working population, saying the urgency of addressing unemployment had become greater than ever.
He said the government would focus on supporting job creators, including through the GH¢10 New Economy policy, which is expected to be introduced in the 2027 Budget. The policy is intended to target nine productive sectors with significant job-creation potential as the country transitions from economic stability to accelerated growth.
Mr Ampem added that the government would work with the Ghana Statistical Service to increase domestic funding for statistical activities and improve coordination across the national statistical system.
