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Socio-economic impact of The impact ofCOVID-19 on
COVID-19 on Ghana’s economy: Ghana’s
economy
challenges and prospects
David Tanoh Aduhene and Eric Osei-Assibey 543
Department of Economics, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
Received 26 August 2020
Revised 24 November 2020
Abstract Accepted 5 January 2021
Purpose – The world’s economies are on their knees following the negative impact of the coronavirus
pandemic over the past 8 months. Growing number of researches has been conducted on the impact of COVID-
19 pandemic on developed countries with little attention on developing countries, who are still grappling with
the negative impact of the coronavirus. The rationale for this study is to assess the socio-economic impact of
COVID-19 on Ghana’s economy and government response to the pandemic as well as policy options to revive
the ailing economy.
Design/methodology/approach – This study explored the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus on
Ghana’s economyusing a discourse analysiswith data fromvarious secondary sources to analyze the impact of
the pandemic from the Ghanaian perspective.
Findings – The findings from the discourse analysis revealed that the coronavirus pandemic has negatively
impacted on the socio-economic situation of the citizens of Ghana. Whiles an estimated 42,000 people lost their
jobs in the first two months of the pandemic in Ghana, tourist attraction sector of the country alone lost $171
million dollars in the past three months due to the partial lockdown and closure of tourism and hospitality
centers in the country. The study revealed that Ghana’s healthcare system has been overwhelmed by the
number of increasing cases in the country to extent of making use of temporary structures as isolation and
treatment centers of the pandemic. The study revealed that Ghana may convert these challenges posed by the
COVID-19 pandemic into prospects and opportunities by investing massively in the health sector and creating
support for the SMEs which creates massive employment for many Ghanaians.
Research limitations/implications – This study focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 on Ghana’s
economy and how the pandemic has negatively affected the country. The study is an exploratory study that
makes use of secondary data. However, conducting a study with primary data sources from specific
communities or regions in the country may not produce the same results. The results from the primary level or
community level may be different from the general results obtained from the study. In future it is expected that
the study focuses specifically on the extent of the coronavirus pandemic on Ghana’s fiscal deficit which seems
to have ballooned in recent times.
Originality/value – The study is the first of its kind to extensively explore the socio-economic impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on the Ghanaian economy. The novelty of this paper is that it recognizes governments
response to the pandemic and proposes three practical measures adopted to put the country’s economy back on
its feet through survive, revive and ensuring growth in all sectors of the economy.
Keywords Ghana’s economy, Socio-economic impact, COVID-19, Government policy
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Coronaviruses are a group of common viruses causing infection ranging from the regular cold
to more severe diseases including the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is a
new strain that has not affected humanity before. This coronavirus outbreak remains a
historical challenge and has resulted in a drastic change in human history across the globe
that will forever be remembered across the globe. Thomas Friedman, a columnist from the
New York Times, recently pronounced that a new historical divide between the current International Journal of SocialEconomics
generation, which will very soon realize the global space Before Corona (B.C.) and After Vol. 48 No. 4, 2021
pp. 543-556
Corona (A.C.), thus, there is a world B.C. and A.C. (Friedman, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic © Emerald Publishing Limited
0306-8293
was first diagnosed on 1st December 2019 in Wuhan city of China and reported to the World DOI 10.1108/IJSE-08-2020-0582
IJSE Health Organization’s (WHO) regional office in China on 31st December 2019 (Gossling et al.,
48,4 2020). The COVID-19 was recognized by the World Health Organization as a Public Health
Emergency of International concern on 30th January 2020. The central point of infections
shifted from China to the European countries in the early weeks of March 2020. The most
affected countries in Europe were Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and France. Currently
over 213 countries and territories around the world have been affected by the coronavirus
pandemic as at the end of July 2020. The coronavirus shifted to the United States following
544 the evacuation of citizens from theWuhan province by the US government. According to the
Worldometer (2020), the USA has recorded a total of five million, seven hundred and one
thousand, one hundred and sixty two cases (5, 701, 162) with One hundred seventy six
thousand, three hundred and forty two (176, 342) as at the end of 19th August, 2020. To date,
over 22 million people have been affected by this pandemic, and more than 790,000 people
have died worldwide from the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the United Nations Framework Report (2020), the COVID-19 pandemic has
been recognized as one of the world’s most serious pandemics that has resulted into crisis
around the world plunging the world’s economy into a recession with historical levels of
unemployment, restrictions on the free movement of people and increased levels of
deprivation. According to the International Labor Organization report (2020), partial or full
lockdown affects almost 2.7 billion workers representing about 81% of the workforce
worldwide. Therefore, this crisis will also threaten the sustainable development goal of the
United Nation due to the loss of jobs and livelihood opportunities for many people who
engage in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The category of employees who
were hardly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic is daily wage earners, self-employed individuals,
migrant workers and refugees across the globe. Also, the manufacturing and service
industries’ jobs that have been massively affected, includes tourism, aviation and the hotel
industry. This global economic recession will affect the movements of the global population
across the globe and hence affect the countries like Ghana with high levels of migration and
high remittance flows contributing to the country’s GDP.
Ghana has also been affected by the pandemic and is listed as the fifth country in Africa
with the highest reported number of coronavirus cases behind South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria
and Morocco. The first case of COVID-19 virus was recorded in Ghana on 12th March 2020.
The caseswere imported by two travelers fromEuropean countries Turkey andNorway. The
country’s inability to contain the recorded cases after few weeks led to an increase in the
number of cases from 2 cases to 566 cases as of 12th April 2020. As the end of 31st May 2020,
Ghana had recorded 7,881 coronavirus cases. However, a total of 43,094 cases have been
recorded in Ghanawith 40, 963 recoveries and 256 deaths. The country’s daily recorded cases
have been on the decline in recent times though the stringentmeasures initially introduced by
the government have been eased. Figure 1 represents the 6-month trend for COVID-19 cases
in Ghana using data from the Ministry of Health and the Worldometers.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale has revealed a potential impact of
the pandemic on the social and economic life of people and unprecedented collapse in the
Ghanaian economy. For a better comprehension of the devastating effects of the measures
introducedby thegovernmentofGhana curb the spreadof the virus suchas the lockdown in the
Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi regions and travel restrictions on the economic sector, this
study summarizes the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on the Ghanaian economy. This
study has tried to analyze the challenges of COVID-19 and assess the potential impact on
various industries of theGhanaian economy.This studymakes several contributions. First, this
study shows how social policies and measures introduced by the Ministry of Health and
government, such as social distancing, frequent handwashing, travel ban and lockdown affect
theGhanaian economy.Next, this paperhasassessed the impact of governmentpolicyand relief
packaged announced by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. And last, it explores
50000 The impact of
45000 COVID-19 on
40000 Ghana’s
35000 economy
30000
25000
20000 545
15000
10000
5000
0 Figure 1.
Daily reported cases of
COVID-19 in Ghana
the social impact of COVID-19 on Ghanaian businesses and industries. Finally, this study will
contribute to the recent literature by exploring the effect of COVID-19 in the Ghanaian context.
This study is organized as follows. Section 2 describes themethodology, and section 3 discusses
the social and economic impact of COVID-19 on the economy of Ghana Next; section 4 presents
the governmentpolicy to support the public anduplift the economic crisis through financial and
non-financial measures. Section 5 discusses the three phases of supporting businesses and the
poor aswell as vulnerable citizens to survive and revive and thenbegin to grow to accelerate the
Ghanaian economy, and section 6 explores the post-COVID-19 challenges and opportunities for
Ghana, and finally, section 7 concludes the study with policy recommendations.
2. Methodology
This study uses a comprehensive discourse analysis to analyze the socio-economic impact of
COVID-19 on the Ghanaian economy The study relies on secondary data from several
reputable secondary resources, including the World Health Organization, WTTC (World
Travel Tourism Council), International Labor Organization (ILO), Ministry of Health,
Government of Ghana ,Worldometers and online news articles. Also, this study analyzed the
report of the impact of COVID-19 from the conducted research in several companies,
including KPMG, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Institute of Statistical Social and
Economic Research (ISSER) and Deloitte. Few of the recent articles published on COVID-19
has also been retrieved referred to conduct this study.
The period of the analysis is primarily focused fromMarch 2020 to August 2020, while to
explore the economic impact in different sectors, the data from various reports have been
taken from the last year. The short period fromMarch toAugust allows the study to highlight
the events occurring at present and especially identify the social and economic effects of
coronaviruses in Ghana when all countries across the globe have been affected due to the
rapid spread of COVID-19. Finally, the study has highlighted the challenges of COVID-19 and
suggested post-COVID-19 opportunities for government policy to respond to COVID-19.
3. Results and analysis
3.1 Socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in Ghana
According to Chakraborty andMaity (2020) the loss of lives because of disaster and pandemic
causes definite irreplaceable damage to human society). But apart from the loss of human
lives, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely destabilized the global economy. To break further
community transmission, WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020, and a
growing number of countries have restricted the movement of their citizens, aviation,
12-Mar
19-Mar
26-Mar
2-Apr
9-Apr
16-Apr
23-Apr
30-Apr
7-May
14-May
21-May
28-May
4-Jun
11-Jun
18-Jun
25-Jun
2-Jul
9-Jul
16-Jul
23-Jul
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13-Aug
IJSE transports and the closure of non-essential businesses and factories (Williams and Kayaoglu,
48,4 2020). The overall impact of COVID-19 on service and manufacturing industries has
considered adverse effects across the globe, which has affected the broader economy of
countries like the, China, Russia, Brazil, France, the UK and Ghana. This section deals with
the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ghana’s economy.
3.1.1 Social impact. The imposition of an unprecedented lockdown in the Greater Accra
and Greater Kumasi regions of the country to prevent coronaviruses’ transmission led to a
546 significant adverse impact on the various communities within the catchment areas of the
country. The introduction of the executive instrument vested in the President of the country
to enact new forms of rules and regulations like social distancing, avoidance of social
gathering, lockdown and travel ban on the Ghanaian economy resulted in stress, fear, social
stigma, increased level of depression, confusion and anxiety in human behaviors. This
section discusses the potential social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ghanaian
societies.
3.1.1.1 Labor migrant issue. The lockdown of the Greater Accra and the Greater Kumasi
regions has not created only the crisis of labor forces, but indeed, it has created a huge labor
migrant issue especially for migrant workers from the Northern part of the country. The
tragedy ofmigrant workers was one of themost crucial and highlighted issues in Ghana after
the pronouncement of the lockdown by the government of Ghana. Hundreds of people
decided to return to the Northern region of the country following the imposition of the
lockdown in two most populated regions of Ghana. An estimated number of over 200
migrants returned to the Nanumba North Municipality following the imposition of the
lockdown in the country. Since the Independence of Ghana in 1956, this would be the first
reverse migration in the country in this huge amount. According to the assessment made by
Municipal Assembly and the government, about 30 head porters (Kayaye) migrant workers
were left stranded at Ejisu in the Ashanti region after they decided to return to the Northern
part of Ghana due to imposed lockdown (Citi newsroom report, 2020). The stranded migrants
need to be supported with relevant help, food packets, protection of life and safe return to
their homes. Thus, there is an urgent need for an effective and fair governance system for
domestic migrant workers across the country. Additionally, due to labor migrant issues,
marine fishing, fish processing activities, infrastructure development, manufacturing and
construction activities would be profoundly affected in urban areas, impacting the nation’s
economic growth and development soon.
Ghana has become a major destination for many international migrants within the West
Africa sub-region. According to the United Nations report (UN report, 2020), over 466,780
international migrants are residents in Ghana following the free cross border agreement
within the sub-region. With the introduction of the COVID-19 lockdown measures to stop the
spread of the coronavirus, over 20,000 international migrants were stranded at the border
towns of the continent in Western and Central African countries. It is also estimated that
about 1,800 Ghanaians were also stranded in Niger who were to be transported through the
various borders of the country such as Aflao, Elubo and Sampa. The lockdown and closure of
borders of Ghana led to the influx of illegal routes through the borders of the country for
migrants either leaving the country or coming into Ghana due to the inaccessibility of the
regular border ways into the country. The labor migrants who found themselves in such
situations became vulnerable to the traffickers and smugglers who were using unapproved
routes to make monies from these stranded labor migrants of Ghana (UN report, 2020).
The informal nature of the Ghanaian economy makes it easier for people with low skills
and low level of education to be employed without any formal and long bureaucratic
processes. The Agriculture sector and the engagement in trade has become a major source of
livelihood for many poor and vulnerable. The limited level of social protection for the poor
makes it difficult for migrants who do not have access to any work during the employment
very impoverished and poor. The labor migrant livelihoods are negatively affected due to the The impact of
lack of natural social protection from their communities or families who could have provided COVID-19 on
for them in times of need. The increased in the lockdown measures by the government to Ghana’s
prevent the spread is significant to cause a reduction in the level of labour migrants
remittances flow which accounted for 5.2% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) economy
in 2019.
3.1.1.2 Employment issue. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the unemployment rate
of the labor workforce in Ghana. According to the Trade Union Congress report, about 42,000 547
people lost their jobs by April only in Ghana where an estimated 75% of them were small
traders, daily workers and wage-laborers. This pandemic has constrained to a significant
number of salaried workers who lost their jobs, and over 400,000 businessmen and women
have lost their businesses July 2020. However, small traders like hawkers would return to
their work, but the salaried workers will face difficulty to get their jobs back after lockdown
with some also facing a cut of up to 50% in their salaries. The unemployment against the
labor participation rate in different regions of the country especially where the lockdownwas
imposed saw a rise in the unemployment rate as of July 2020. The Trade Union Congress
report as of June 2020 shows that Greater Accra and the Greater Kumasi are the hardly hit
regions in the country with an unprecedented rise in the unemployment rate in the Ghanaian
economy.
3.1.1.3 Education systems. COVID-19 pandemic has affected all levels of the education
system across the globe from pre-school to tertiary education level. The closure of schools,
churches, drinking bars and beaches as well as air, sea and land travel was imposed by the
president of Ghana on 28th March 2020. This action was taken by the government with the
intention to prevent the spread of the virus and control the transmission of the virus from
high risk towns to vulnerable individuals and families, which will have widespread socio-
economic implications. Based on a similar provision in the UK, Italy and Germany, the
governments of Ghana completely closed the schools, colleges and institutions. According to
Sudevan (2020), UNESCO estimates that, 1,026 billion children worldwide have been affected
by school closures due to this pandemic, which is 72% of the world’s student population. The
World Economic Forum reports that there is an increase in the use of language apps, virtual
online classes, video conferencing tools and online learning software in the few months
following the closure of schools The structure of schooling and e-learning in Ghana is fragile
because only a handful of private and government schools and a higher level of technical
institutions could adopt online teaching methods. However, Ghana’s education sector is
experiencing a sharp shift from the brick and mortar system of teaching and learning to a
virtual learning system. Ghana is gradually witnessing an e-learning education method by
conducting the classes on Zoom, WhatsApp, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Sakai
Learning Management Systems.
Meanwhile, millions of the students from government schools and colleges, especially in
rural areas belonging to villages where the parents are not aware of the technology, could not
access e-learning education due to lockdown. Some of the studentswere also not able to afford
data for the e-learning system and therefore could not participate in the learning process
during the lockdown. Most of the school going age children who were beneficiaries of the
school feeding and capitation grant are no more beneficiaries of the policy and intervention
due to the closure of schools in the country. It will have a significant impact on childcare costs
in low-income families. Research and development needs of the tertiary education sector of
the country have also been affected significantly and this will impact negatively on the
country’s development. Due to the closure of higher institutions, much non-COVID related
research has been delayed in the postgraduate research community. However, another
concern is the pandemic’s effect on the employment rate and the recent graduates of fear of
IJSE being laid off from their places of work due to the low production activities on-going in many
48,4 businesses in the country.
3.1.1.4 Stress and fear. The number COVID-19 cases recorded within a month of first
confirmation in Ghana showed a massive increase. The confirmation of death of 5 deaths
resulting from COVID-19 in Ghana as at 1st April, 2020 increased the tension, stress level and
the anxiety level among Ghanaians. Most news portals were inundated with hourly cases
records and continuous hammering of news around the world on the number of deaths
548 especially in many European countries raised the suspicion that many Ghanaians may also
die as result of the virus. The increased level of stigma and tensions among citizens led to
psychological and emotional turmoil among many citizens in the country. The endless
hammering of COVID-19 news around the globe has created a humiliation, stress and anxiety
among the people. Psychologists and psychiatrists suggest that the current time is
challenging for everyone, especially when patients experiencing mental health issues
continue to hear such news in the media become more vulnerable (Prashar, 2020). Individuals
who recovered from the virus after treatment from the various health centers were denied
access into certain social places such as the markets, shopping malls etc. Individuals who
knew the close familymembers of COVID-19 patients were stigmatized for thewrong reasons
and some were sacked from engaging in public conversation because of the fear that they
may be carriers of the virus. The death of a prominent physician in the country aggravated
the issue of fear especially amongmedical professionals in Ghana.Most of their childrenwere
denied access to them upon return to the house from the hospitals and the isolation centers.
3.1.2 Economic impact. The Ghanaian economy has been categorized into three parts,
including primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. The primary sector consists of the
agriculture and allied sector such as mining, fishing and forestry. The secondary sector
includes all industries involved in the manufacturing and production processes within the
country and the tertiary sector involves all service provision industries like information
technology, hotels, restaurants, education, real estate, banking, transport, travel and tourism
industry.
3.1.2.1 Primary sectors. 3.1.2.1.1 . Ghana’s agriculture sector. Ghana’s agriculture sector
has been the backbone of the economy contributing massively to the GDP year on year. The
sector employs an estimated 60% of the Ghanaian population (Ghana Statistical Service,
2020). It is the largest sector of the country that provides income for the most households
especially the rural residence of the country. According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the
prices of agricultural produce increased between 10–20%during the COVID-19 pandemic era
due to the restrictions in the movement of people from one place to the central business
districts of the affected areas of the country.
The already frail rural-urban food network was negatively affected as fewer middlemen
moved into farming communities to buy. The drastic reduction in the number of fresh food
retailers in our markets and the decision of some managers to close restaurants, hotels and
other local eateries has massively reduced the bulk purchase of fresh food. Due to the
lockdown and restrictions from the COVID-19 protocols, numerous market women who were
engaged in the carting of fresh foods from rural communities due to fear of spoilage from the
slower pace in the purchasing of fresh foods as a result of lockdown measures.
While low-income earning, individuals stay at home adhering to precautionary measures,
this affected the income of families as well as their purchasing power. Owing to the poorly
managed food supply chains, price hikes set in. As a result, many people were deterred from
buying fresh food. A typical scenario is where people buy tomato paste, which has relatively
not increased in price, rather than buying a fresh tomato that is more expensive. Livestock
farmers were adversely affected by the low sales during the pandemic era where most people
were not able to gather for their usual Easter celebrations.Most poultry farmerswere affected
badly due to low sales and increased pressure from the financial institutions to pay back The impact of
borrowed loans (GSS, 2020). COVID-19 on
3.1.2.2 Secondary Sector. 3.1.2.2.1. Manufacturing sector. Ghana’s manufacturing sector Ghana’s
has been on the rise since the last quarter of 2019. The manufacturing sector experienced an
unprecedented growth from GHS 4548.69 million cedis to GHS 5112.15 million cedis in the economy
first quarter of 2020. The first case of coronavirus which was recorded on 12th March 2020
with its associated lockdown measures slowed down the level of the contribution of the
manufacturing sector to the GDP of the country. Though certain vital and essential producers 549
of personal protective equipment (PPE) were exempted from the lockdown, many other
companies that were not involved in the production of the PPEs were closed. The COVID-19
significantly affected the manufacturing and extractive sectors of the Ghanaian economy
leading to a fall in the prices of extractive items on the global market and in Ghana (Laing,
2020). Many investments in the manufacturing sector of the country were moved from the
sector into the hoarding of hard currency leaving the manufacturing sector to be suffocating.
In Ghana, some AngloGold Ashanti mine workers tested positive for the virus and the site
was closed for someweeks pending results from the contact tracing, testing and treating. The
impact of the COVID-19 on Ghana’s manufacturing sector continues to ravage on with a
downward review of Ghana’s economic growth from 5.8% to 1.5% by the International
Monetary Fund (Bamfo et al., 2020).
3.1.2.3 Tertiary sectors. 3.1.2.3.1. Healthcare systems and the pharmaceutical industries.
Ordinary citizens were asked to practice social distancing, but the doctors and other frontline
healthcare workers are being applauded across the globe and have been heroes in this
pandemic period.Most of the service industry employees have embraced thework from home
while the healthcare workers are at tremendous risk due to their daily contacts with the
COVID-19 carriers. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented challenge for the
healthcare industry with cases increasing every time. In common, the risk to doctors and
healthcare frontline workers is one of the most significant vulnerabilities in healthcare
systems across the globe (Nicola et al., 2020). Ghana has a fragile healthcare system and
highly vulnerable compared to the healthcare systems of other developed countries.
However, the healthcare structure has faced shortages of PPE, including PPE kit, N95 face
masks, ICU beds, testing kits, medical hospitals and ventilators, which have exposed the
weakness and real scenario of healthcare systems in the country. The government should
realize about healthcare systems that need to lead the massive investment into medical
infrastructure and disease prevention steps. The healthcare system and the economic have
both been negatively affected by the coronavirus pandemic due to the limited financial
resources and increasing overload on the health delivery system.
Temporary isolation and treatment centers were established across the various districts
and regional offices of the metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs). These
isolation centers received positive cases of COVID-19 and patients were treated there due to
the inability of the already existing hospitals to accommodate the increasing number of cases.
Medical facilities that were near completion were used to ensure that patients were
accommodated and treated in such facilities to prevent the spread of the virus.
The COVID-19 impact on the pharmaceutical industry in Ghana has been more
pronounced. The industry shifted from the production of the usual medical supplies into the
supply of PPEs, hand sanitizers and other COVID-19 fighting anti-bacterial drugs since they
were in high demand. The establishment of the COVID-19 fund also had the contribution of
the pharmaceutical companies with some of the companies donating a whooping GHS
100,000 cedis in the form of cash and procurement of PPEs for frontline workers and the
security agencies during the lockdown period. The pharmaceutical companies in Ghana also
contributed to the education on the COVID-19 with various press release on the use of
hydroxychloroquine tablets which was still under clinical trials. An estimated 80% of the
IJSE pharmacy companies in the country ventured into the production of PPEs and other COVID-
48,4 19 protocol products such as hand sanitizers, face masks and hand gloves for the medical
practitioners and the ordinary citizens.
3.1.2.3.2. Hospitality and the tourism industry. Ghana’s tourism sector is a massive market
for travel and tourism; however, the pandemic will have a significant impact on the tourism
and hospitality industry of the country. This industry has been a significant contributor to
the nation’s GDP, and as of the 2019 Ghana Tourism Authority recorded an unprecedented
550 influx of over 1 million foreigners who visited the country due to the country’s celebration of
Year of Return. The sector creates employment for all categories of people including cooks,
craftsmen, tour guards and other ancillary opportunities for the teeming youth in the country.
Almost all tourism destinations points of the country have imposed restrictions on access to
these facilities due to the low patronage during the lockdown and the travel ban in the
country since March 2020 in Ghana, including complete bans on international flights and
social gatherings.
The lockdown of cities and industries, travel restrictions and border shutdowns by
countries have resulted in amajor decline in service sectors such as retail, tourism, hospitality
and aviation globally. According to the Tourism Ministry, the tourism and hospitality
industry in Ghana lost $171 million dollars due to the lock down of the tourism centers of the
country. The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reduced the hotel occupancy rate which
recorded more than 100% occupancy rate in 2019 due to the year of return festive occasion.
Though government has proposed a support scheme of GHS 3 billion and GHS 600 million
support facilities for the ailing industries in the country, the tourism industry still needs time
to be revived for its contribution to the GDP of the country to be felt.
4. Government’s response to COVID-19
The section assesses the government’s response to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic in
Ghana. The responses of the government are categorized into two main concepts. These are
the non-financial response and the financial response.
4.1 Non-financial response to COVID-19
The government sector employees, including health workers, doctors, security agencies (police
and soldiers) and bureaucrats, have been the focal center of the fight against COVID-19 from
mandating social distancing to the imposition of lockdown in the Greater Accra and Greater
Kumasi regions of Ghana. These people have performed a crucial role in quarantine centers,
manufacturing PPE kits, face masks and hand sanitizers, working with pharmaceutical
companies to supply the needed medical equipment, medicines and delivering the food
packages.During this crisis, the governmenthas takenquickdecisions insteadof the traditional
stereotype of slow-moving bureaucratic processes that are usually experienced in the public
sectorbusinesses.The first impositionof lockdownwason the30thMarch2020 in the twomajor
cities of the country Accra and Kumasi as well as its adjoining towns. The lockdown was
necessary to reduce the rate of the virus spread among citizens of the country from the hot spots
of the country to non-hotspot areas of the country. The government of Ghana has taken several
relaxationmeasures innon-hotspot geographical areas to respond to theCOVID-19 and support
the economic activities in these areas.
The borders of the country remained closed as at the end of July 2020 except for
Ghanaians and foreigners who have resident permit in the country. This measure was
introduced by the government to reduce the spread of the virus from foreign countries since
the first two cases recorded in the country were imported cases from Norway and Turkey;
whereas on April 21st, the government granted permission to the inter-city movement of
stranded people, including essential workers. The geographic areas have been categorized The impact of
into green, red and orange zones, and domestic air transport has been restarted on 25th May. COVID-19 on
Meanwhile, the government has also launched the COVID-19 tracker App, which is a mobile Ghana’s
application to spread awareness of novel coronaviruses, contact tracing of COVID-19 cases
and provide information about patients to essential health services providers in the country. economy
During the lockdown, vulnerable households had organizations such as churches and the
non-governmental organizations engaging in the distribution of foods and hand sanitizers to
the poor and vulnerable households who cannot afford them. The government continued to 551
enforce the lockdown of beaches, churches and other social gathering places such as the
beaches in the country to prevent the spread of the virus.
4.2 Financial measures
4.2.1 Fiscal policies.TheCOVID-19pandemic significantly shifted government’s attention from
the usual spendingon infrastructure to adhoc financial policies that tend to revive the economy.
Thegovernmentestablished theCOVID-19TrustFund.TheCOVID-19TrustFund inaugurated
by the government receivedGHS 45million cedis in cash transfer from various institutions and
organizations as well as individuals in the country within twomonths. The accumulated funds
were used to provide food for the vulnerable in the country. The COVID-19 trust fund further
procured somePPEs for thehealthcareworkers andhealthcare facilities in the country to ensure
they have adequate PPE to fight the coronavirus pandemic. It is disclosed by the government
thatasat the endof June2020, theCOVID-19TrustFundhasaccumulated anamount ofGHS53,
911,249.87. A total amount of GHS 32, 820, 564.97 have been spent by the government out of the
accumulated amount in the COVID-19 Trust Fund. As part of government spending on the
procurement of PPEs for frontline workers, the fund transferred GH¢10,257,360.00 into
the COVID-19 Private Sector Fund for acquisition of PPEs and other medical items to resource
the country’s frontlineworkers. TheNational Commission for Civic Education (NCCE)was also
supported with GH¢2,500,000.00 to enhance COVID-19-related public sensitization. To make
concretedecisionson theCOVID-19basedonaccuratedata, the InstituteofStatistical,Social and
EconomicResearch (ISSER)wasprovidedwith an amountofGH¢ 297,920.00 to conduct studies
on the impactof thepandemic in80districts across the country.Aspartofgovernment’s effort to
ensure the support for SMEs an amount of GHS 600 million cedis was announced by the
government to support these businesses who were virtually on their knees.
4.2.2 Monetary and macro-financial policies. The central Bank of Ghana as a regulator of
the banking and financial industry in Ghana, has announced several unconventional
measures to support the commercial needs of the Ghanaian economy and making accessible
the regulations to help the banks in response to COVID-19 (KPMG report, 2020). At the very
early stage of the first lockdown on 30th March, the central Bank of Ghana BOG) reduced the
charges on mobile money transfer from one user to the other for the next three months. Any
amount transfer to another customer came which is below GHS 100 cedis came with no
charge and this eased the pressure on customers. The key interest rate in Ghana was 16%–
14.5% and this is recorded the lowest interest rate in the last 8 years. The required reserve
rate was reduced to 10%–8% to provide enough liquidity for the commercial banks to
support critical sectors of the Ghanaian economy. The bank also decreased in the
conservation buffer from 3% to 1.5%, which cuts the capital-adequacy ratio from 13% to
11.5%. The Bank of Ghana asked the IMF for a rapid disbursement of a credit facility to help
the country face the negative economic impact caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
5. Challenges and suggestions from recovering from the COVID-19 in Ghana
A study conducted by Eggers et al. (2020) recommended that governments should respond to
the COVID-19 pandemic through quick decision process to curtail the negative impact of the
IJSE CVOID-19 pandemic on the economies of the world. The government of Ghana adopted three
48,4 main procedures for fighting the coronavirus cases in the country. The three (3) phases for
fighting the pandemic in Ghana includes tracing, testing and treating. The processes enabled
the government to trace the positive cases in the country, test them and then treat them off the
virus. To revive the Ghanaian economy, the analysis proposed by Deloitte epitomizes a
timeline for COVID-19 government responses into three parts, respond, recover and thrive.
Respond is the first phase to deal with an instantaneous crisis. Recover is the next stage to
552 mitigate the larger impacts of the crisis. Thrive is the final stage for the long-term
development in public operations and speed up the economy. Based onDeloitte’s insights, our
study has suggested three phases survive, revive and growth process, to respond to the
COVID-19 in the Ghanaian perspective.
5.1 Survival
Survival is the number one phase to fight with coronaviruses. Currently, the government is
dealing with an immediate crisis and passing through diverse typical measures, including
imposing lockdown of some social centers such as beaches, large funeral practices, restricting
travel, authorizing social distancing, supplying urgent medical needs, the safety of health
workers, making available food packages to students in the various basic educational
institutions in the country for them to prepare for theBasicEducationCertificateExamination
(BECE) and providing immediate financial assistance to businesses and frontline workers in
the fight against theCOVID-19The considerable challengesduring this phaseare to flatten the
increasing curve of COVID-19 cases, enhance proper healthcare system capacity and increase
the tracing, testing and treatment capacity level of the positive cases in the country.
The next challenge is to overcome the scarcities of masks, PPE kits, ICU beds, testing kits
and respirators and provide in each region across the country without any delay. The central
government should provide relief packages and financial assistance to regional and district
health service providers in the fight against COVID-19. Next, the government system should
reach out to the public and provide awareness and guidance to avoid the spread of
community transmission. The compulsory use of masks in public places should be enforced
to ensure that the country’s number of cases reduce drastically in the coming months to
enable economic activities to go and ensure life also returns to normal.
5.2 Revive
Revival is the second stage to come out from the COVID-19 crisis. Whiles countries that were
hardlyhit by thevirus are recovering from thevirus, others in the SouthAmerican continent are
still battling with it. Countries like Spain, Italy, France and Germany are in the recovery phase
because they have been able to manage the new COVID-19 cases and are trying to recuperate
gradually. The government’s measure to unlock-1 the economy in April 2020 was to save the
ailing Ghanaian economy from further collapse. After the easing of restrictions, the number of
coronavirus cases increased in massive amounts from 8,070 cases to 10, 358 cases as of 10th
June 2020 and the curve is continuously rising. However, this phase needs to be ready with
medical support and continuously monitor for the second wave of crisis. So far, government
procedures have been facing primarily with necessary medical supplies and economic issues.
The next pressure is to open the public sector organizations and bring back day-to-day
operations with safety protocols and precautions in the offices, churches and public places.
Currently shuttered offices, including schools, colleges, licensing officeswill need to be sanitized
and move into the operation phase. According to Eggers et al. (2020) one interesting challenge
for the government is that COVID-19 is a slow-motion crisis transmitting over weeks and
periods, and it has a high degree of ambiguity regarding timing, spread and final effects.
Despite such uncertainty, governmentsmust handle this critical situation to recover human life
on the track and return life to normal.
The government should continue to support the management of vaccines treatments of The impact of
remaining active patients and be ready for any unpredictable circumstances to curtail the COVID-19 on
increment in the level of death cases in the country. The healthcare regulating bodies such as Ghana’s
the Ghana Medical Association, Pharmaceutical council of Ghana, Ministry of Health and the
district health committees should assess the health and various hospitals’ financial status and economy
health systems and plan the future to strengthen its public health preparedness. Because the
healthcare systems of the USA, China and Europe’s leading countries are extremely
developed, and they spend a vast amount of per capita income on healthcare systems they 553
have been able to withstand the increased number of cases of the COVID-19. The Ministry of
Health report for 2019 suggests that the government of Ghana spends only 3.25% of GDP on
public healthcare which is less than neighboring countries such as Nigeria (3.75%), Burkina
Faso (6.9%) and Cote D’Ivoire (4.5%), Contrary to this, the United States of America spends
18% of its GDP, which is the maximum expenditure on public health in the world. Therefore,
Ghana needs to emphasize more investment in public health infrastructure development and
stimulate the research and development base in the pharmaceutical industry to boost the
production of drugs that can be used for the treatment of various sicknesses in the country.
5.3 Growth
Aside responding to the survival and revival phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments
need to concentrate on long-term improvements of the healthcare system because the full-
fledged revival of economic activities still depends on the preparedness of the healthcare
system. The government needs to strengthen the public health infrastructure and monitor
health data, including new cases, hospital facilities and treatment responses and go on to
support future vaccination efforts (Eggers et al., 2020). The healthcare systems ought to
concentrate on slowing down the spread of new cases, control the pandemic from
indispensable medical pressure and adopt extensive mass testing in Ghana. The public
should follow social distancing and mass gathering protocols to prevent transmission speed
and flatten the curve to the barest minimum. Additionally, the number of healthcare
professional doctors and nurses should be increased to boost the healthcare system capacity
through the establishment of medical schools in all the regions of the country to train medical
professionals. This will equip the medical professionals to respond to cases of other
sicknesses and diseases such as the Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) which usually break out
in the Northern part of the country.
This phase can set the groundwork for companies to grow the business resulting in
sustained economic growth. Potential companies may diversify businesses and be more
reliant on indigenous production and export the finished products to contribute to economic
growth. However, the government has announced the stimulus package of GHS 600 million
cedis for self-reliant Ghanaian companies and encouraged the use of local products.
Additionally, there could be some instances where COVID-19 may spillover for longer times,
and Ghana may explore the possibilities of exporting essential items and medicines to the
affected countries (KPMG, 2020). KPMG report expects that at the time of the growth phase,
India’s economic recovery will be quicker and faster than many other advanced developed
countries
6. Post-COVID-19 challenges and prospects for the Ghanaian economy
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the level of economic growth
and infrastructural development of the country. The economy has been hardly hit by the
virus leading to the revision of the economic growth of the country from 5.8% to 1.5%. The
loss of lives, livelihoods and the shutdown of many facilities are some of the major challenges
IJSE this pandemic has brought on the global economy and in Ghana specifically (Nicola et al.,
48,4 2020). At the beginning of COVID-19, Ghana was not prepared for this pandemic at an
unprecedented level and faced the shortage of intensive care beds, hospitals, testing kits, bed
capacity and ventilators. Ghana spends as low as 3.57% on public health system of the
country which is not enough making it fragile.
554 6.1 Investment in the public healthcare system
Government in its fight against the COVID-19 announced the establishment of one hundred
and ten (110) district hospitals to consolidate the major healthcare facilities in the country.
This is a major landmark in the healthcare system which needs to be commended once the
government can fulfill its promise. The private sector contributed immensely toward the
establishment of 100-bed health facility within three (3) months through crowd funding and
donations from the private individuals. This is an opportunity for the country to invest more
in the training of health professionals to deliver quality healthcare services to the citizens of
the country. Motivation of the health professional through the increase by 50% of their basic
salaries remains one of the opportunities for people to be educated in the health sector. This
will boost and motivate people to effectively participate in the study of medicine and
healthcare delivery courses that will reduce the patient to doctor ratio in the coming years.
6.2 Small and medium scale enterprises support
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the weak medium scale businesses in the country. Most of
the people who dwelled on the SMEs in the country lost their livelihoods through the
increased level of consumption of their savings due to partial lockdowns imposed on the two
major business centers of the country. The COVID-19 provides the opportunity for the
government to finance the SMEs which employs more than 70% of Ghanaians. The
government in its support to businesses released an estimated GHS 600 million cedis to
support businesses in the country. It is expected that the SMEs in Ghana benefit immensely
from the amount carted by the government to support these businesses since many
livelihoods in Ghana have been affected due to the partial lockdown. According to the AGI,
over 42,000 people lost their jobs in the first two months of the coronavirus pandemic. This
means that financial support for these SMEs will go a long way to revive the economy and
provide employment opportunities for many people who lost their jobs during the height of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
6.3 Support to the agriculture sector
The agriculture sector is the guardian of the Ghanaian economy and has provided a lot of job
opportunities for the citizens. Most of the policies of the government in recent time have been
toward the industrial sector of the Ghanaian economy. The governmentmust not tolerate any
interruption in the agriculture sector. The governments should come to the fore and ensure
farmers’ requirements, which should not be taken for granted. There should be a policywhere
farmers can easily take the loan from the bank to engage in agriculture work at the right time,
and there should be no interruption in the agriculture sector during the crisis.
Reverse migration due to COVID-19 from the Southern part of Ghana to the Northern part
where agriculture is most employed sector within these regions may provide an opportunity
for the government and the district assemblies to engage the returned migrant workers in
self-employment, leverage the potential of agriculture and contribute to Ghana’s ’s economic
growth and development. Especially labor-intensive sectors like fisheries, livestock, farming
and food processing have not developed and stimulated over the years in rural areas
(Dagunga et al., 2020). These activities may be possible with the support of government and
district assemblies who can identify the needs of the residents and provide the needed The impact of
support for them to engage in agriculture activities. It is necessary to throw light into the COVID-19 on
policies and revisit the role of agriculture to revive economic development. Ghana’s
7. Conclusion economy
The coronavirus pandemic has introduced a newnormal in the lives of the ordinary citizens of
countries across the world. As citizens continue to adhere to the safety protocols of social
distancing, frequent washing of hands and the use of face masks, it is expected the impact of 555
the pandemicwill last not less than 2 years. The continuous increase in the number of COVID-
19 case counts in Ghana poses threat to the livelihoods of many people employed in the
agriculture, industrial and health sector. Ghana’s economic growth rate has been hit by the
pandemic with government attention now focused on rebuilding of the country’s economic
following the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the country. For the economy
to fully recover from the negative impact, it is recommended that financial support to the
SMEs should be provided to these businesses to ensure their continuous operations in the
country. As at the end of August, 25,000 SMEs have been provided with financial support to
the Medium and Small-scale Loans (MASLOC) to support SMEs which remains one of the
largest employment creation avenues in the country. This financial support has been able to
revive some of the businesses who were virtually on their knees to collapse following the
lockdownmeasures by the government. Government must actively involve the private sector
in the establishment of healthcare units across the country. In the heat of the COVID-19, the
government in partnership with the private sector was able to establish an infectious hospital
to cater for COVID-19 patients in the country. Thiswas donewithin three (3)monthswhen the
lockdown measures were fully in place. It was recognized as a major boost for the health
sector of the country as the country battles the COVID-19. However, the government through
theMinistry of Finance has announced huge investment in the District Health facilities where
the government has promised one hundred and ten (110) hospitals to take care of the residents
of the country in the healthcare system. The Agriculture sector must not be left out of
government policies in this pandemic era due to the food price fluctuations in the fewmonths
the country was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
7.1 Limitations of the study
This study focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 on Ghana’s economy and how the pandemic
has negatively affected the country. The study is an exploratory study that makes use of
secondary data. However, conducting a study with primary data sources from specific
communities or regions in the country may not produce the same results. The results from the
primary level or community level may be different from the general results obtained from the
study. In future it is expected that the study focuses specifically on the extent of the coronavirus
pandemic on Ghana’s fiscal deficit which seems to have ballooned in recent times.
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Corresponding author
David Tanoh Aduhene can be contacted at: davidaduhenetanoh@rocketmail.com
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