Ghana had 2,644,363 registered businesses in 2024, according to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) report Ghana in Numbers.
The figures, drawn from the first Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES I), show that 1,867,695 establishments operated from fixed structures, while 693,748 were open-space businesses and 82,920 were mobile businesses.
The number of establishments has almost tripled since 2014, when there were 638,235. However, employment in those businesses increased at a slower rate, rising from 3.38 million people to 6.90 million.
Nine out of 10 establishments are micro businesses employing between one and five people. Only 7.7% are formal, with the proportion falling to 6.7% among businesses established between 2015 and 2023.
“Women run most micro, open-space and mobile businesses, and formal, digitally connected and paid work is most common in Greater Accra,” the report said.
The report also said Ghana’s nominal GDP reached about GH¢1.4 trillion in 2025, while income per person rose from GH¢4,710 in 2013 to GH¢42,502 in 2025.
Services account for 45.9% of the country’s economic output. Ghana also exported GH¢148.3 billion more in goods than it imported.
Informal trade across the country’s land borders was included in the figures for the first time. Goods worth GH¢38.4 billion crossed the borders with Togo, Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire in the year to September 2025.
That represented about six cedis in every 100 of Ghana’s total trade and was the main form of trade between Ghana and those three neighbouring countries, the report said.
Food price inflation, which peaked at 61.0% in January 2023, had slowed to 4.9% by the end of 2025. Although agricultural production continues to increase, government spending on agriculture amounted to only about 0.2% of the economy in 2024.
Ghana in Numbers brings together official statistics on population, health, education, the economy, government, the environment and the Sustainable Development Goals in a single publication.
In the foreword, Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said access to the same figures used by government would strengthen public trust and accountability.
“When citizens can see the very same figures their leaders use, trust grows and government can be held to account. Openness is the foundation of a confident nation,” he said.
Dr Forson said the publication formed part of wider efforts to improve the reliability of Ghana’s statistics, alongside the rebasing of national income (GDP) and consumer price figures and other changes to the national statistical system.
He said the reforms would provide a stronger evidence base for policymaking, adding: “Good policy is not built on opinion or guesswork. It is built on evidence.”
In Ghana’s 2026 Budget, Dr Forson told Parliament that the GSS would launch Ghana in Numbers as an annual flagship publication. He said the report was the first edition and would be released every year.
He thanked the Government Statistician, the management and staff of the GSS, and its Board, and urged students, teachers, traders, farmers, public officers and other citizens to read and use the publication.
“Our national story is written in these numbers. Let us read it honestly and together write its next chapter,” he said.
