Story: Business Desk

The World Bank says 56.4% of Ghanaians remain in poverty, despite recent economic growth, with widening spatial disparities highlighting a disconnect between headline economic performance and living conditions. 

Speaking at the launch of the World Bank Group’s 10th Ghana Economic Update, World Bank Division Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Dr Robert Taliercio O’Brien, said the country’s growth has yet to translate into broad-based improvements in living standards. 

“56.4% of Ghanaians remain in poverty. And spatial disparities are widening,” Dr Taliercio O’Brien said. 

He said the situation reflects a gap between the economy’s headline growth figures and the experiences of a large section of the population. 

“… a disconnect between the headline growth that is yet to reach most of the population,” he remarked. 

According to the World Bank, another challenge is the structure of Ghana’s economic growth, which is being driven by sectors that have limited capacity to absorb workers. 

Dr Taliercio O’Brien said this poses a growing challenge as Ghana’s young population continues to enter the labour market. 

“Growth is led by sectors with limited employment absorption relative to its growing young population entering the labour market in the next decade,” he said. 

He described the situation as “a structural imbalance that also demands urgent attention.”