Editorial: Export competitiveness wanes

The country’s dipping export competitiveness has tumbled by 8.4 percentage points over the last two decades and is still declining, the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) has said.

In its Country Economic Transformation Outlook (CETO) document for Ghana, ACET mentioned that exports remain concentrated in moderate- and low-complexity products, reflecting limited diversification and export sophistication.

According to the report, weak value addition and minimal processing have hindered technology upgrading, slowing industrial progress. About 94 percent of the country’s current export basket has low technology content which has not changed significantly over the last 30 years.

Consequently, the need to expand and deepen non-traditional exports and higher value products is crucial for competitiveness and economic resilience.

The report notes that raw materials constitute about 51 percent of Ghana’s exports while intermediate goods make up 43 percent. Lack of significant processing and value addition in the export sector has resulted in minimal transformation into technology-intensive and competitively priced sectors, highlighting the need for diversification.

“This concentration on a few primary commodities – namely gold, cocoa and more recently petroleum which together account for over 75 percent of total exports – demonstrates limited diversification and ongoing challenges in expanding beyond these primary products. Moreover, Ghana’s export competitiveness has been low… declining by 8.4 percentage points over the last two decades.”

Although there have been some shifts in export markets, with increased exports to other African countries – particularly within ECOWAS – Ghana still faces challenges in expanding beyond its traditional export destinations.

“The only way out is to diversify and expand into high-value products export. That is non-negotiable for making progress going forward,” the report notes.

Despite numerous government initiatives aimed at increasing value addition, these interventions have encountered significant obstacles.

The ACET report attributed Ghana’s dismal ranking to several factors, including persistently high production costs and an over-reliance on primary commodity exports such as gold and crude oil.

The report placed Ghana among the bottom 30 African nations in export competitiveness, highlighting a critical need for urgent policy reforms.

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