Six out of 10 believe Ghana is headed in the wrong direction - Report

Six out of 10 Ghanaians believe the country is headed in a wrong direction per prevailing economic conditions, a new Afrobarometer report has indicated.

The survey which assessed the present economic and living conditions of Ghanaians compared to the last round of survey conducted in 2017 established that, the share of citizens who see the country to be going in the right direction had further declined by 15 percentage points.

Thus from 50 per cent in 2017, only 35 per cent of Ghanaians still believe Ghana was heading the right way.

Sampling the views of 2,400 Ghanaians across all 16 regions between September 16 and October 3 this year, the report nonetheless pointed out that more than half (54%) of respondents were optimistic things will be better in the next 12 months.

Presenting findings of the report in Accra yesterday Afrobarometer Communications Coordinator for Anglophone West Africa based at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Josephine Appiah-Nyamekye Sanny, said, the study found a slight decline in the number of Ghanaians (from 35 to 30 %) who described the country's economic conditions as fairly good.

"Majority 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," she noted.

Turning attention to the financial sector, Ms Sanny indicated that despite the recent shake-up, banks are the most trusted financial institution, followed by mobile money services with far fewer Ghanaians considering savings and loan companies, microfinance companies, and traditional susu collectors as safe places to keep their money.

"Still, banks remain the most trusted financial institutions in Ghana even after the turmoil of the past two years as more than eight in 10 citizens consider it "very safe" (58%) or "somewhat safe" (25%) to keep their money in banks.

Mobile money has earned second place in popular trust with more than seven in 10 Ghanaians saying it is "very safe" (36%) or "somewhat safe" (36%) to keep their money there," she noted.

Moreover, the Communications Coordinator said per the study "far fewer citizens have confidence in other financial institutions as majority of Ghanaians think it is not safe to keep their money with susu collectors (72%), at home (67%), microfinance companies (64%), or in savings and loans (61%)."

Surprisingly however, the report noted that more people consider their money "very safe" at home (11%) than with savings and loan companies, microfinance companies, or susu collectors (7% to 8%).