Ghana is a country of 34 million people with a fast-growing, young, globally and digitally connected population.  Fifty-six percent of Ghana’s population is under the age of 25. Many Ghanaians have strong personal or business ties to the United States, and a strong affinity for American brands and technology. Ghana is the fourth largest U.S. export market for goods in Sub Saharan Africa.

Beyond its traditional industries of agriculture, mining, and oil and gas production. Ghana’s digital, financial services, construction, education, and franchising sectors are growing fast. Further, Ghana’s developing healthcare system, tourism sector, roads, rail, shipping, and port infrastructure offer opportunities for U.S. companies. Ghana’s Atlantic ports and daily direct flights from the United States make it an excellent platform for doing business in Africa. As the host to the new African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, Ghana is at the heart of Africa’s transformative regional integration and can be a good place to launch your business strategy for the African continent. Please see ongoing market intelligence reports about Ghana’s dynamic economy.

The country’s capital, Accra, is a bustling metropolitan area that is home to roughly two million people. Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region north of Accra, is another large population center and an active commercial center with roughly the same population.

At present, Delta operates a daily, direct flight to Accra from New York (JFK), and United operates frequent flights to Accra from Washington, Dulles (IAD). International visitors arriving by air will enter Accra through Kotoka International Airport. Please see the Business Travel section regarding visas.

There are several business hotels in Accra. Restaurants offering Ghanaian cuisine as well as food from around the world are plentiful. Taxis are available at the airport and Uber and other ridesharing services are well established in the market. Money can be exchanged for Ghanaian Cedis at Kotoka International Airport or at hotels and at some banks. ATMs accepting international bank cards are plentiful in Ghana’s city centers. Kumasi offers a few hotels that meet international business standards; other locations offer several budget to mid-priced hotels.

Ghana enjoys a vibrant media, with more than 350 radio stations, 120 television operators, and 250 newspaper and magazine publications. Many media outlets have a website and social media presence.

U.S. companies seeking to do business in Ghana are advised to take a long view, taking time to get to know potential business partners and to develop relationships that go beyond email and texts. U.S. companies that can send a representative to visit Ghana and meet potential partners and make site visits will make a favorable impression on potential partners, and be more confident that the potential partners are themselves credible and suitable.

Ghana has a rich diversity of ethnic groups, each with its own unique culture and way of life. The major ethnic groups are Akans (45.7%), Mole Dagbon (18.5%), Ewe (12.8%), Ga-Dangme (7.1%), Gurma (6.4%), Guan (3.2%), Grusi (2.7%), Mandi (2.0%), and other (1.6%). Less than 1 % of the population is non-Ghanaian, and 90 % of that population comes from other ECOWAS countries.

The official language and the language of business is English, which is the primary medium of instruction in all schools. Ghanaians speak local languages, as well, and many are conversant in several.

Ghanaians are known to be very hospitable people. They are also very religious, with roughly 95% engaging in an organized religion. Approximately 71% of the population is Christian, 19% is Muslim, 5% adheres to indigenous or animistic religious beliefs, and the remaining 5% belongs to other religious groups or has no religious beliefs.

Traditional leaders such as chiefs and queen mothers continue to play an important role in many aspects of daily life, especially in terms of regulating social norms in rural areas and in controlling land and other natural resources. Companies may need to develop relationships with traditional leaders, particularly if they are pursuing large projects in the leader’s area of jurisdiction.

Although there are occasional disagreements in rural areas among ethnic groups, mainly over land ownership or traditional leadership succession, Ghana has enjoyed peaceful transitions of government following elections for more than three decades. Ghana’s 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary elections were largely peaceful and involved a transfer of power from the incumbent New Patriotic Party, which had been in power since 2016, to the National Democratic Congress, which had held the Presidency in the eight years preceding 2016.

Political Environment:  Visit the State Department’s website for background at Ghana - United States Department of State.

Economy

Ghana is slowly emerging from a protracted economic and debt crisis that began in 2022. The government concluded a staff level agreement with the IMF for a $3 billion, 3-year Extended Credit Facility, which was approved by the IMF board in May 2023. 

In 2023, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate reached 2.9%.  GDP grew to 5.7% in 2024. That year, approximately 47% of Ghana’s GDP was generated by the services sector, 31% by manufacturing/mining, and 22% by agriculture.  In 2024, output in the services sector grew by 5.8%, while manufacturing and mining expanded by 9.3%. Services and agriculture employ 41 and 39% of Ghanaians, respectively.
  
The economy remains highly dependent on the export of primary commodities such as gold, cocoa, and oil, and is vulnerable to slowdowns in the global economy and commodity price shocks. Other challenges to Ghana’s economy include access to foreign capital at an affordable rate, low internally generated government revenue, and inefficient state-owned enterprises. The domestic currency, the cedi, depreciated by more than 120% against the U.S. dollar in early 2022, but rebounded significantly in 2025, reaching 10 cedi to the U.S. dollar in June 2025. Interest rates in Ghana continue to be high (25% and above), mainly because of Central Bank’s monetary policy and efforts to curb inflation as well borrowers’ high default rate. The Ghanaian market, and its urban centers, are price sensitive. Prices are a pivotal factor, pushing consumers to more affordable brands. 

According to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, the annual sales and activities of U.S. multinationals in Ghana stood at $4.7 billion in 2022, the last year for which data was reported. In 2023, the U.S. direct investment position in Ghana (outward) was $1.6 billion, a decrease of 2.7% from 2022.

The United States exported $967 million in merchandise goods to Ghana in 2024. Top U.S. exports included: passenger and other vehicles and parts, oil and gas-related products, plastics and chemicals products, guts and bladders, wood pulp, poultry, civil aircraft parts, telecommunications equipment, and earth moving equipment. In 2024, Ghana imported more than $17 billion in merchandise goods from global partners. The top countries supplying those imports in that period were: China (23%), the EU27 (15%), the United Arab Emirates (9%, driven by Ghana’s gold for oil program); the United Kingdom (7%,); India (7%); the United States (5%); Switzerland (3.5%), Russia (2.5%) and South Africa (2%), among others. 

Ghana’s exports to the United States totaled $1.2 billion in 2024. A great deal of this trade was comprised of Ghanaian exports of crude oil to the United States. Ghana’s exports also included: cocoa bean; liquor and butter; apparel; rubber; and cassava. Ghana’s top global exports include cocoa, gold, and oil. Ghana’s top global export markets include Switzerland (gold and cocoa), United Arab Emirates (gold), South Africa (gold, oil, rubber), China (oil, manganese, aluminum), India (gold), Canada (oil and cocoa), Netherlands (cocoa, shea), Burkina Faso (various), Brazil (oil and cocoa), and the United States (cocoa, oil, rubber, lead). 

Further, Ghana’s services imports and exports have grown exponentially in recent years. Ghana’s growth in imports of services has been one of the fastest in Sub Saharan Africa. In 2020 (the latest year for which data is available), Ghana imported $12 billion in all types of services from the world and exported approximately $9 billion the same year. This growth is led by imports of business services, a category that includes computer and related services as well as architectural/engineering, legal, accountancy and advertising services. Inward travel/tourism as well as freight services are other growth areas. 

Precise statistics showing the U.S. proportion of Ghana’s $12 billion in services imports are not available. However, U.S. companies play a very significant role in Ghana’s services sector. There is a strong presence of U.S. ICT services providers in the market (see ICT section). The number of Ghanaians studying in the United States is growing (an educational export for the United States). Finally, U.S. providers of financial services, express delivery, logistics, consultancy/legal services, and companies providing services to Ghana’s oil and gas and mining sectors play a prominent role and contribute to U.S. services exports to Ghana.