Ghana has been ranked 103rd out of 144 countries in the latest 2012-2013 Global Competitive Index (GCI), moving up an impressive 11 places since the 2011-2012 report.
The GCI uses 12 pillars divided into three main sub-indexes to measure countries’ competitiveness. These are:
- Basic requirements – infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education.
- Efficiency Enhancers- higher education training, goods market efficiency, financial market sophistication, technological readiness, market size.
- Innovation& Sophistication Factors- business sophistication and innovation.
Competitiveness is defined by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country.
Ghana displayed strong public institutions and governance indicators in comparison to other African countries.
According to the GCI report, some aspects of the country’s infrastructure are good by regional standards, particularly the state of Ghana’s ports. Ghana’s financial market was also seen to be well developed, receiving a respectable ranking of 59. However, education levels continue to fall behind international standards at all levels and the labour market is still characterized by inefficiencies. Also, Ghana is still not harnessing new technologies for productivity enhancements as ICT adoption rates are very low.
Sub Saharan Africa and Africa as a whole continues to face the biggest challenge in its effort to become competitive in all regions of the globe. South Africa was ranked 52nd in the world and 1st in Africa with Ghana being ranked 10th in Africa and 103rd in the world.
GUBA hopes that Ghana significantly improves its educational standards, and introduces ICT training schemes for better utilization of technology in this developing world. We hope to see Ghana move up in rankings in the 2013-2014 Global Competitive Index.
By Claudia Andrews
