Ghana has made notable progress in business readiness but continues to face serious efficiency challenges that could undermine its competitiveness, the World Bank has cautioned.
At a high level B READY working session held in Accra on Tuesday, February 3 2026, Subika Farazi, a Senior Economist in the World Bank’s Business Ready unit, highlighted Ghana’s regulatory strengths while drawing attention to persistent weaknesses in policy implementation and operational efficiency.
Findings from the B READY 2026 assessment show that Ghana’s business readiness scores range from 72 percent in financial services to 34 percent in market competition. The figures suggest that while regulatory frameworks are relatively strong, significant gaps remain in how policies function in practice.
Comparing Ghana with its regional peers, Farazi said regulation remains the country’s strongest pillar.
“When compared with the regional peers, we see that the regulatory pillar, for Ghana, shows the strongest performance. Even for public services pillars, Ghana’s scores lag only behind Togo, outperforming the rest of the economies,” she said.
Despite this strength, she warned that weak operational efficiency continues to weigh heavily on Ghana’s overall performance.
“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, showing stronger scores in the efficiency pillar.”
At the sectoral level, Ghana recorded strong performance in financial services, labour and business entry, ranking among the better performers in the region.
“Overall, the business readiness of Ghana ranges from 72% in financial services to 34% in market competition. Ghana performs well in financial services and labour topics, and in fact is in the top wind tunnel for labour,” Farazi explained.
However, international trade was identified as a critical area where efficiency gains could yield immediate benefits. Farazi pointed to delays in export and import clearance as a major constraint.
“For example, in Ghana, it takes on average 9 to 23 days for export and import clearance, which on average takes around 5 to 8 days in Cameroon.”
The working session brought together senior government officials, private sector leaders and World Bank teams to examine key constraints affecting food processing, light manufacturing and trade facilitation, all priority areas under the government’s 24H⁺ programme.
The World Bank said the B READY findings offer detailed, data driven insights to guide Ghana’s reform efforts as it seeks to improve operational efficiency, stimulate private sector growth and strengthen its competitiveness both regionally and globally.
