The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) released a new report on Thursday, stating that Ghanaian businesses were gradually switching to digital financing and sustainability practices in their transactions and core activities.
The Ghana 2024 Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) report said 37.2 percent of enterprises surveyed use digital financial services to enhance their businesses, adding that Accra, the capital, accounts for 50.9 percent of the adoption of digital financing.
While fund transfers through mobile money platforms keep increasing in the country, other digital fund transfers, including through digital applications provided by banks and financial technology companies, have also been gaining traction, added the report.
“Green practices are also on the rise, with 28.5 percent of agricultural and 20.6 percent of industrial businesses classified as green,” said Samuel Kobina Annim, the government statistician at the GSS, who launched the report.
Annim urged that “while progress is evident, targeted policies are needed to accelerate digital and sustainable transitions.”
On the state of business development, the official said the dominance of micro-sized businesses has become more pronounced, making up 90.4 percent of all businesses, a significant increase from 16.6 percent in 2014.
The government statistician added that microenterprises also employ the highest number of people, providing jobs for 2.8 million people, nearly double the workforce of large enterprises.
He noted, however, that the dominance of the micro-sized enterprises in Ghana’s business space has stunted job creation in the country.
“While business numbers have surged, employment growth has been relatively slower, moving from 3.2 million in 2014 to 6.9 million in 2024,” Annim added, attributing the slow growth in job creation to the nature of the micro-sized businesses, each of which absorbs only between one and five persons.
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.