Minister for Business Development, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has called on the academic community to do more in the areas of research to guide the crafting, formulation and implementation of national policies.

Speaking at the launch of the second edition of the Ghana Business Development Review, the Minister tasked the University of Business School (UGBS) to do more in providing such useful research.

“Academia give us the research. Sweat us with the research. Evidence-based information that you have given us is crucial to making decisions,” he stated.

He said, “This will serve as a guide to government, for which we are very grateful. Thank you for the work to you and your team.” 

Ghana Business Development Review (GBDR)

The second edition of the report is a build on the first edition of the report which was launched in 2016. 

It chronicles a wide range of business sectors with each sector dissected on the following thematic areas; developments, performance, managerial and governance issues, major constraints as well as the outlook. 

The period for examination is 2015-2017. There are 18 chapters in total.

Chapter 1 of the report sets the tone for the other chapters by providing an overview of the Ghanaian economy and the prevailing business environment within the period of review. 

The report wraps up with chapters on hospitality and tourism sector and accounting services sector.

With regards to sectorial performances, for example, the report stated that the industrial sector recorded negative growth of -1.2% in 2016 from 0.1% in 2015.

Services sector continues to play its role as the main driver of the growth by expanding by 0.7% over the previous year to reach 5.9% in 2016.

The Information and Communication subsector continues to be the leader of services sector growth rising to 14.4% in 2016 from 13.4% in 2015.
The report provides relevant and useful information for academia, for industry practitioners and policymakers.

The Project Coordinator of the Review, Dr Mohammed-Aminu Sanda hailed the report as relevant to the national development discourse. 

He stated that both government and academia would need to work together to ensure such reports are used going forward.

Dr Mohammed-Aminu Sanda added that some steps have been taken already from both ends to bridge a gap that exists between government and academia in using research-based findings for national development programmes and policies.