Editorial: ‘Big Push’ will propel industrial growth

Government Statistician Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu is of the strong conviction that should government expedite implementation of its Big Push agenda, the country’s economic outlook could outpace present industrial growth.

Speaking during the 2025 first-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates’ release, Dr. Iddrisu indicated that while the economy expanded by 5.3 percent in Q1 2025 – a gain from 4.9 percent in the same period of 2024 – the industrial sector only recorded modest growth of 3.4 percent.

Accordingly, targetted investment in infrastructure such as power, road and digital systems under the Big Push agenda could unlock significantly higher growth, especially in industry, Iddrisu argues.

 Industry grew by 3.4 percent in 2025 Q1 compared to 6.7 percent in 2024 Q1. The oil and gas sector declined sharply by 22.1 percent, dragging the industrial sector down. But manufacturing was strong, growing by 6.6 percent and showing that local production is holding up.

“Accelerating Big Push investments in power, roads and digital infrastructure could support private sector expansion and enhance regional competitiveness, thereby unlocking industrial growth beyond the 3.4 percent growth,” Dr. Iddrisu notes.

The ‘Big Push’ agenda is  a government strategy anchored on heavy public investment in infrastructure and seen as key to unlocking bottlenecks and spurring job creation and competitiveness.

The first quarter GDP performance reveals broad-based growth across most sectors. The nominal GDP stood at GH¢375.2billion, up from GH¢290.7billion in Q1 2024. Real GDP reached GH¢53.5billion compared to GH¢50.8billion a year earlier.

Importantly, non-oil real GDP grew by 6.8 percent – significantly outpacing overall growth and underscoring the non-oil economy’s increasing resilience.

Agriculture, once again, showed strong recovery by growing 6.6 percent – a significant jump from 2.4 percent in Q1 2024 – with fishing leading at 16.4 percent growth, the highest since 2022. Cocoa production also expanded for the first time since Q3 2023, while crops remained a strong driver.

Despite an overall positive performance, the industrial sector underperformed relative to the previous year. While manufacturing grew by 6.6 percent, the sharp contraction in oil and gas activities dragged overall industry growth down to 3.4 percent from 6.7 percent in Q1 2024.

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