Ghana hits 7th in Africa on Ibrahim Index

Ghana's

Ghana ranks 7th in Africa in the latest Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), but the Index notes that governance in the country has been deteriorating since 2011.

Ghana has a score of 67.3 over 100 in the Index launched Monday October 5, 2015 by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

The IIAG evaluates African governance annually using a range of 93 indicators in four categories: safety and rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development – each divided into three or four sub-categories.

The Index says the performance of Ghana’s governance reflects deteriorating results since 2011, despite the country managing to keep itself among the top 10 countries and performing better than the African average (50.1) and the West African average (52.4).

Ghana’s best performance among the four categories was in Participation and Human Rights for which it was ranked second on the continent: 76.1 well above the continental average of 49.3, and representing an increase of 0.1 since 2011.

There was a 3.9 point improvement in civil liberties, rights and freedoms and performance under international human rights conventions, offset by a slight decline in free and fair executive elections, and legislation on violence against women.

Ghana’s second best performance was exhibited in Human Development – 71.5, with a rank of 8, representing a +1.1 increase since 2011. The African average for the category is 56.4.

Safety and Rule of Law comes third in Ghana’s performance over the four categories: a continental rank of 6th and a score of 70.6 over 100, against the African average of 51.3. The performance however reflects a decline of 1.5 since 2011.

Judicial Process (-12.5). Ghana is one of only five countries on the continent to have seen a decline in this particular governance measure, alongside Egypt, Morocco, Mozambique and Säo Tomé & Principe.

Ghana’s lowest score was in the category Sustainable Economic Opportunity – 51.3 per cent and a rank of 13th, reflecting the general downturn in that category which experienced the lowest continental average score of 43.2 over 100.

Ghana’s economics was found wanting especially in the following indicators: fiscal policy, access to financial records of state-owned companies, debt to exports ratio and revenue to exports ratio.

The Sustainable Economic Opportunity category which examines the sub-categories Public Management, Business Environment, Infrastructure, and Rural Sector, had the greatest continental decline in any sub-category or indicator since 2011: the sub-category Business Environment deteriorated by -2.5 points and Soundness of Banks by -11.

Four countries defied the general negative economic performance, gaining more than five points in Sustainable Economic Opportunity: Morocco (+11.2), Togo (+9.5), Kenya (+5.9) and Democratic Republic of Congo (+5.4).

The top three countries were Mauritius, Cape Verde and Botswana, although they all showed a decline in overall governance and in at least two of the four components over the last four years.

The bottom three countries in the latest rankings are Central African Republic (24.9), South Sudan (19.9) and Somalia (8.5).

Mo Ibrahim Foundation says South Sudan (-9.6) and Central African Republic (-8.4), along with Mali, have registered the most extreme deteriorations.

In a press release issued in London and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation says the Index found that there has been a shifting landscape in governance on the continent. Over the last four years governance progress in Africa has been stalling, it indicated.

“During the period 2011-2014, the African average overall governance score in the IIAG increased only slightly by +0.2 points to 50.1 (out of 100.0), with considerable changes in performance during the last four years at all levels of the Index, both at country and at category level,” it added.