Survey: Majority of Ghanaians Say Economic Conditions Are Very Bad

Accra, Ghana, November 28, 2019//-Majority of Ghanaians say the current economic conditions in the country are very bad.

While only three in 10 Ghanaians (30%) describe the country’s economic conditions as “fairly good” or “very good,” a modest decline from 35% recorded in 2017, according to a survey conducted by Afrobarometer.

Mrs. Josephine Appiah-Nyamekye Sanny, Afrobarometer’s Communications Coordinator for Anglophone West Africa who presented the findings of the survey added that Ghanaians were not happy with the economic performance of the government.

Ghanaians’ approval ratings on indicators of their government’s economic performance have declined sharply compared to 2017, she said.

However, Mrs. Sanny noted that few citizens are content with the country’s economic situation and their personal living conditions, and a majority say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Still, more than half are optimistic that things will get better in a year’s time. Ghana has received positive reviews from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank and made important economic strides, including the successful completion of the IMF bailout program and a clean-up of the financial sector.

But so far these successes appear not to have translated into concrete gains recognized by most citizens.

Key findings  

• Only three in 10 Ghanaians (30%) describe the country’s economic conditions as “fairly good” or “very good,” a modest decline from 35% recorded in 2017.
• Fewer than four in 10 (37%) say their personal living conditions are “fairly good” or “very good.”
• And only 31% say the country’s economic condition has improved over the past 12 months. But more than half (54%) are optimistic that things will be “better” or ”much better” in 12 months’ time.
• Six in 10 Ghanaians (59%) say the country is “going in the wrong direction.” The share of citizens who see the country as “going in the right direction” declined by 15 percentage points from 2017, to 35%.
• Majorities of citizens say government is performing “fairly badly” or “very badly” in narrowing income gaps (66%), improving the living standards of the poor (56%), and creating jobs (54%) .
• Approval ratings on indicators of the government’s economic performance have declined sharply compared to 2017, with approval on management of the economy recording the steepest drop, by 20 percentage points.

Instructively, the Afrobarometer team in Ghana, led by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), interviewed over 2000 adult Ghanaians between 16 September and 3 October 2019.

A sample of this size yields country-level results with a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

Round 8 surveys are planned in at least 35 countries in 2019/2020. Afrobarometer conducts face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice with nationally representative samples.

Seven rounds of surveys were completed in up to 38 countries including Ghana between 1999 and 2018.

Afrobarometer heads a pan-African, nonpartisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues across Africa.

Source: African Eye Report