What’s on the thoughts of voters in seven charts


AFP A Ghanaian football fan wearing glasses that say 2024 on them. He has a hat with a red brim.AFP

Ghana is heading for its ninth common election since multiparty politics resumed in 1992.

In that point, there have been three peaceable transfers of energy, with the 2 important events – the Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Social gathering (NPP) – holding the presidency for a complete of 16 years every.

Right here, in charts, are the large points this time spherical because the NPP goes for an unprecedented third successive time period in energy.

A chart showing the increase in price of various foodstuffs in the 12 months from February 2023. Among the items mentioned are eggs which have gone up by 150%, tomatoes by 104% and yams by 67%.

Ghanaians had been hit notably arduous within the pocket by the worldwide bout of inflation, starting in early 2022, that noticed costs rise within the nation at their quickest price for greater than twenty years.

The annual price of enhance reached a peak of 54.1% in December 2022. It has since come down, however that is simply a median and costs of some staples have continued to go up sharply.

Eggs and tomatoes, as an example had been greater than twice as costly in February 2024 as they had been 12 months earlier. Different Ghanaian favourites have additionally shot up with wages not conserving tempo.

Though the favored nationwide dish – Ga kenkey (fermented maize dumplings) with fish – has not seen such an enormous soar, the balls of kenkey are actually smaller.

Consequently, extra folks have been pushed into poverty and residing requirements have suffered, the World Financial institution says.

A graph showing the increase in Ghana's public debt since 2000. There is a sharp rise from 2021 where it reached a peak of $60bn - it has since dropped to $50.9bn.

In 2022, Ghana defaulted on its debt repayments and was pressured into prolonged negotiations with worldwide lenders to try to restructure the loans, that are nonetheless on-going.

Native lenders had been pressured into taking decrease repayments.

The federal government additionally went to the Worldwide Financial Fund to get assist with a bailout programme.

President Nana Akufo-Addo admitted the nation was in “disaster” however blamed outdoors forces. The opposition and a few economists stated it was all the way down to financial mismanagement by the federal government.

The sum of money that Ghana owes its collectors has steadily risen for the final twenty years, however there was a pointy uptick in 2019, and by 2022 the federal government wanted greater than 70% of its earnings simply to service the debt.

A line graph showing the change in the unemployment rate from 2010 to 2023. It shows a steady increase from 2017, when it was 8.4% to 14.7% six years later.

The nation’s financial difficulties have been accompanied by a steadily rising unemployment price.

Going again twenty years, one in 20 Ghanaians capable of work had been unemployed – that determine now stands at one in seven.

With greater than half the inhabitants – some 24 million folks – below the age of 35, younger folks have been notably hard-hit.

For 15-to-24-year-olds the unemployment price is twice the general determine, with practically 30% with out a job.

The views of youthful voters might have a big effect on the end result of the election.

A bar chart showing Ghana at the top of the list of African gold producers - with 115 tonnes in 2023. Also on the list are Mali - 105 tonnes, Burkina Faso - 99 tonnes and South Africa 97 tonnes.

As Africa’s largest – and the world’s tenth largest – producer of the valuable metallic, gold performs an enormous position within the economic system.

Gold mining has develop into a serious talking-point within the months main as much as the election, with complaints concerning the injury that small-scale and unlawful mining is doing to the atmosphere.

However with the worldwide gold value greater than doubling within the final decade, the attraction of getting concerned within the enterprise is apparent.

A pie chart showing what products Ghana's exports are made up of. In 2023, gold accounted for 45% of the exports, crude oil 24% and cocoa beans and paste, 9%.

Gold is an enormous foreign-exchange earner for Ghana – in 2023, exports amounted to $5.2bn (£4.1bn).

Together with gold, the nation has sources of oil, gasoline, diamonds, bauxite and lithium amongst different issues.

It is usually an enormous participant within the world cocoa market, being the world’s second largest provider of the important ingredient of chocolate.

These sources have remodeled the economic system over the previous three a long time and enabled the nation to develop into a lot richer, with excessive poverty dropping by half in that point, World Financial institution specialists have stated.

A line graph showing the change in GDP per capita over the past three decades. It shows a sharp increase from 2005 when it was $400 to 2017 when it was $2,200 - but has barely changed since 2017.

The common annual earnings per individual has gone by way of a dramatic shift since 2005, with the usual of residing displaying a marked enhance as much as 2017.

Since then, nevertheless, it has barely risen, apart from a spike in 2021.

At election time, politicians need to take care of the truth that voters have a tendency to not take the long-term view however typically base their selection on whether or not issues are bettering within the brief time period.

A chart showing parties' support in Ghana's presidential elections. It shows the share of support for the National Democratic Congress, New Patriotic Party and Others, between 1992 and 2020.

The final three a long time have seen a sequence of carefully fought and peaceable elections.

Consequently Ghana has typically been held up for instance of an open democracy that has turned its again on instability and its personal historical past of coups in a area the place they’re nonetheless a problem.

In some circumstances, elections hinged on simply tens of hundreds of votes and regardless of occasional authorized challenges, the outcomes have typically been accepted by the losers.

We anticipate finding out the outcomes of this 12 months’s race inside three days of the 7 December election.

A thin banner in Ghana colours saying Ghana Election 2024.
A thin graphical banner in Ghanaian colours.
Getty Images/BBC A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News AfricaGetty Photos/BBC

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