An Overview

Ghana is a west African nation located close to the equator along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean which form its southern boundaries.

Spanning a land mass of over 92,000 square miles, it is bounded to its west by the Ivory Coast, to the North by Burkino Faso and to the east by Togo.

Its geography and ecology are diverse ranging from coastal savannahs to tropical rainforests. Forests and grasslands mixed with southern coastal shrublands dominate the land which also features the world's largest artificial lake, Lake Volta, hills, plains, waterfalls and an extensive river network.

Ghana's 30 million population spans a variety of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups with Christianity the dominant religion practised by almost 70% of the population. 

A democratic country, it is ruled by a President who is both head of state and head of government and its growing economic power has made it a local powerhouse within west Africa.

It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the African Union, the Non Aligned Movement, the Group of 24 and ECOWAS. Its capital is Accra, a coastal city with a regional population of over 4 million.

Science and Technology

The Ghana Space Science and Technology Centre and the Ghana Space Agency oversee the space exploration programmes which are co-ordinated with those of South Africa.

Ghana was the first sub- saharan African country to launch a mobile cellular network in 1992 and one of the first to connect to the internet. It aims to be the information technology hub of West Africa

Economy

The Ghanaian economy is an emerging digital-based mixed economy hybrid similarly to that of Taiwan. It is strongly linked with the countries of the Far East, particularly China and Singapore and the Chinese currency RMB is used in trade.

There is diverse resource rich exportation of industrial minerals, agricultural products (primarily cocoa), petroleum and natural gas.

Information and communications technology is a growing sector, primarily via Ghana's state digital technology corporation Rlg Communications, which manufactures tablet computers with smartphones and various consumer electronics.

There is an increasing amount of primary manufacture and exportation of digital technology goods along with the assembly and export of automobiles and ships.

A middle income country, services count for 50% of GDP followed by manufacturing 24%, extractive industries 5% and taxes 20.9%.

The "Ghana Vision 2020" plans for Ghana to become a developed country between 2020-2029 and a "newly industrialised country" by 2039.

The Ghana stock exchange is the fifth largest in continental Africa and the third largest in sub-saharan Africa.

Health Services

Ghana has a universal health system strictly for Ghanaian nationals, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). There are over 200 hospitals in Ghana and urban regions are well served with hospitals, clinics and pharmacies.

Private healthcare is developing with international organisations opening facilities in the country providing advanced specialist care.