The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) released a new report on Thursday indicating that micro-sized enterprises dominate Ghana’s business space, stunting job creation in the country.
The Ghana 2024 Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) report said that despite the expansion of businesses in the country, most of the businesses are micro-sized.
It added that microenterprises are also the largest employers, providing jobs for 2.89 million people, nearly double the workforce of large enterprises.
“While business numbers have surged, employment growth has been relatively slower, moving from 3.28 million in 2014 to 6.9 million in 2024,” the report noted.
It attributed this slow growth in job creation to the nature of the micro-sized businesses, “each of which absorbs only between one to five persons.”
The dominance of micro-sized businesses has become more pronounced, making up 90.4 percent of all businesses with a significant increase from 16.6 percent in 2014, said the IBES report.
Government Statistician Samuel Annim, who presented the report, added that 92.3 percent of Ghanaian businesses remain informal, with only 7.7 percent of them formal.
This business, according to Annim, is not registered and does not keep any formal accounts and is difficult to track for interventions, adding that there is a gradual shift toward more formal business operations as the businesses evolve.
On a more positive note, the government statistician noted that “As businesses evolve, digital finance and sustainability are gaining traction. Currently, 37.2 percent of establishments use digital financial services.”
“Green practices are also on the rise, with 28.5 percent of agricultural and 20.6 percent of industrial businesses classified as green,” said Annim.
He called for targeted policies to accelerate digital and sustainable transitions in the country.
Raphael Ayitey, National Treasure of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), who chaired the launching, lauded the GSS for churning out critical and quality data to aid business development.
“There is growing demand for reliable and timely business data, frequently requested by policymakers and development partners, Ayitey observed.
The lack of such data, he said, could lead to underestimating the information sector’s contribution to GDP and distort the structure of manufacturing and productivity over time.
“With insights from the IBES report, planners and policymakers now have a clearer understanding of both the formal and informal sectors, paving the way for better-structured business operations in the future,” the AGI official added.