Ghana plans US$10bn nine-sector jobs push; details expected in 2027 budget

By the Citi Sighs Intelligence Desk — Toronto, October 28, 2026

TORONTO — Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama says the government will put US$10 billion into nine sectors over five years, about US$2 billion a year, under a New Economy Policy that the finance minister is expected to present with the 2027 Budget. Mahama said the programme would be funded from Ghana's own resources, not new borrowing.

For Canadian founders and investors, the pledge shows where Accra intends to steer public money and new incentives next year: agribusiness, textiles, pharmaceuticals and tourism are among the named priorities. But the policy has been announced, not enacted. Until the budget is read and Parliament approves the spending, there are no published rules, eligibility criteria or incentive terms to plan against.

What was announced

Mahama outlined the plan at Jubilee House while meeting chiefs of the Western North Region, Citi Newsroom and 3News reported on Oct. 18. Both outlets describe the policy as proposed and say the finance minister will announce it in the 2027 Budget.

• Size: US$10 billion over five years, about US$2 billion a year. No cedi figure was given.
• Sectors: nine "pillars". Four are named in every report: textiles and garments, agriculture and agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, and tourism. Graphic Online also lists oil palm. The rest have not been published.
• Projects: a pharmaceutical hub on land the government says it has serviced, 100,000 hectares of oil palm, and rubber on farms where cocoa is no longer viable, according to Graphic Online.
• Purpose: jobs, including alternatives for young people drawn into illegal small-scale mining (galamsey), a link Mahama also made to Western North chiefs, the Ghana News Agency reported.

What it means in practice

The budget is the legal vehicle. Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson has said it will include fresh business incentives and major infrastructure projects. He made the case to the Association of Ghana Industries, whose president, Kofi Nsiah-Poku, welcomed the stabilisation and said industrial growth and jobs should come next. He has pointed to early November for the presentation; MyJoyOnline reports that Ghana's public financial management law requires it by Nov. 15.

Three groups should read the budget statement closely:

• Agrifood and agritech firms. At a Ghana-UK investment summit in June, Ato Forson listed commercial agriculture, mining value addition, energy and transport infrastructure as priority sectors, GhanaWeb reports, including gas-to-fertiliser projects.
• Health and life-sciences companies. Mahama said foreign pharmaceutical firms have shown interest in the hub; Graphic Online reports that a company he met in New York is expected to visit next month to assess it. No firm or commitment has been named.
• Lenders and fintechs. Mahama argued that with Treasury bill rates down from about 29% to about 7%, banks should lend to private companies at about 13%.

That 13% is the President's expectation, not a regulated rate. At the Oct. 26 tender, the 91-day bill cleared at about 4.6% and the 364-day bill at about 9.7%, according to Bank of Ghana auction results. The average lending rate was 15.9% in August, down from 24.2% a year earlier, GhanaWeb reported after the central bank Governor's Oct. 6 meeting with bank chiefs.

How Ghana got here

Ato Forson first flagged a New Economy agenda in May, when he said stability had been achieved and the focus would shift to jobs. Since then the IMF has raised its 2026 growth forecast for Ghana to 5.7%, and inflation was 5.2% in September, The Herald reported. KPMG's review of the mid-year budget notes that public debt fell to 44.7% of GDP in 2025 from 61.8% in 2024.

The Ghana Statistical Service puts youth unemployment (ages 15 to 35) at 21.9% on average over the first three quarters of 2025, against 12.8% nationally.

Nigeria is taking a different route on process: its finance minister has issued a draft framework requiring impact tests before major tax, tariff and regulatory changes, and invited public comment.

What to watch next

• The full list of nine sectors, the agency in charge and how US$2 billion a year is funded without borrowing.
• Incentive terms: tax relief, duty waivers or credit lines, and whether foreign-owned firms qualify or face local-partner expectations.
• The Bank of Ghana's next policy decision; its Monetary Policy Committee last met on Sept. 23–24.

The case for and against

The case for: in our view, the plan targets labour-intensive sectors with domestic and regional demand, and it comes as government borrowing costs fall and the IMF's growth forecast rises. GhanaWeb reports that the cost of capital weighs on manufacturers; a funded push could bring anchor buyers, co-investment and faster approvals for local firms and foreign partners alike.

The case against: spending US$2 billion a year without borrowing means domestic revenue must do the work, and the minister has already urged the private sector to support revenue mobilisation. It is unclear how much reaches private firms rather than state projects. The Herald also reports that sources close to the IMF have warned against relying too heavily on gold earnings. Cocoa farmers asked to switch to rubber, and mining communities, will want to see how the transition is funded. We found no published response from the parliamentary opposition to the US$10 billion figure.

What we could not verify

• No official text of the announcement from the Presidency or Finance Ministry; this article relies on Ghanaian press and the Ghana News Agency.
• The meeting date: the Ghana News Agency dates a Western North chiefs' courtesy call Oct. 13 but does not mention the US$10 billion figure, while Citi Newsroom and 3News reported the remarks on Oct. 18.
• All nine sectors: reports name four or five.
• A cedi value for the US$10 billion: none was given.
• The exact budget date, and the Nov. 15 legal deadline, which we did not check against the Act.
• We could not open the Bank of Ghana's September MPC statement, so we do not report the current policy rate.

Disclosure: Citi Sighs has no commercial relationship with any company or institution named in this article. This article is general information, not tax, legal or investment advice.