Ghana Advances in Regulatory Reforms but Falls Behind in Market Competition

Ghana has made notable strides in business readiness but continues to face significant efficiency challenges, the World Bank has cautioned.

Speaking at a high-level B-READY working session in Accra on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, Subika Farazi, Senior Economist with the World Bank’s Business Ready unit, highlighted the country’s regulatory strengths while underscoring areas in urgent need of reform.

Findings from the B-READY 2026 assessment show that Ghana’s business readiness scores range from a high of 72 percent in financial services to a low of 34 percent in market competition. The results point to robust regulatory frameworks but persistent weaknesses in how policies are implemented in practice.

Comparing Ghana with its regional peers, Farazi noted that regulation remains the country’s strongest pillar.

“When compared with regional peers, the regulatory pillar shows Ghana’s strongest performance. Even in the public services pillar, Ghana’s scores are second only to Togo and outperform the rest of the economies,” she said.

However, she warned that inefficiencies continue to undermine competitiveness.

“In terms of the operational efficiency pillar, Ghana’s relative performance is not as strong as that of many peer economies, including Togo, Senegal, Cameroon and Cape Verde, which show stronger efficiency scores,” Farazi added.

At the sectoral level, Ghana performs strongly in financial services, labour and business entry, ranking among the top performers in the region.

“Overall, Ghana’s business readiness ranges from 72 percent in financial services to 34 percent in market competition. The country performs particularly well in financial services and labour, where it ranks among the top-tier performers,” she explained.

International trade was identified as a critical area where efficiency improvements could yield quick gains. Farazi pointed to clearance delays as a major bottleneck.

“In Ghana, export and import clearance takes an average of 9 to 23 days, compared with about 5 to 8 days in Cameroon,” she noted.

The working session brought together senior government officials, private-sector leaders and World Bank teams to examine constraints affecting priority sectors such as food processing, light manufacturing and trade facilitation under the government’s 24H⁺ programme.

According to the World Bank, the B-READY findings offer detailed, data-driven insights to support Ghana’s reform agenda as it seeks to improve operational efficiency, boost private-sector growth and enhance its competitiveness at both regional and global levels.

Source: Sekunde FM