Most Ghanaians have described the country’s economic condition and their own living conditions as “bad” or “very bad”, according to the findings of the 2014 Afrobarometer Survey.
“Some Ghanaians went without the basic necessities such as food, water, medical care, fuel for cooking and cash income sometime within the past year,” it revealed.
Ghana’s population stands at 24,658,823, according to the results of the 2010 Population and Housing Census.
The findings of the survey, which were released in Accra yesterday, also indicate that 52 per cent of Ghanaians believe the country’s economic condition has gotten “worse” or “much worse”, compared to the previous year.
The survey also shows that more Ghanaians are pessimistic (38 per cent) than optimistic (30 per cent) about improvement in the economy over the next 12 months.
“A large majority of Ghanaians (82 per cent) believe the country is heading in the ‘wrong direction’,” the survey indicates, adding that the assessment is worse than the 57 per cent of Ghanaians who held such a view in 2012.
Economic management
Most Ghanaians scored low marks for the government’s economic management performance, describing it as “fairly bad” or “very bad”.
The survey indicates that Ghanaians consider the management of the economy as the most important problem that the government must fix.
That consideration is a shift from policy priorities indicated in previous Afrobarometer surveys in 2005, 2008 and 2012 in which most Ghanaians considered unemployment as the leading policy priority.
Afrobarometer
Afrobarometer is an African-led, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions and related issues across 35 African countries.
Five rounds of Afrobarometer surveys were conducted between 1999 and 2013, with very revealing findings.
Methodology
This year’s Afrobarometer Survey in Ghana was conducted from May 24 to June 10, 2014.
It involved a 2,400 nationally representative sample size of adult Ghanaians who were randomly selected.
The sample was distributed across the regions, urban and rural areas in proportion to their share in the national population.
It involved a face-to-face interview in the language of the respondent’s choice.
It yielded a margin of error of +-2 per cent at 95 per cent confidence level.
Way forward
A Senior Research Officer at CDD-Ghana, Mr Daniel Armah-Attoh, who presented the findings, said the sampling method of the survey had been certified by the Ghana Statistical Service.
He expressed the hope that the findings would inform policy-making in the country.
