ANALYSIS OF URBANIZATION

IN THE CONTEXT OF 3DS IN

GHANA:
RESEARCH QUESTION
The research seeks to answer these questions:
 What are the driving factors of urbanization in Ghana?
 What is Ghana performs in the context of D3s?

NAME: SALAMATU JIBRIAL

 BRIEF FACTS ABOUT URBANIZATION AND
REGIONAL TREND IN GHANA
 Urbanization in Ghana has been a challenging factor right from the onset of
modernization.
 Though Ghana has experienced a very rapid rate of urban growth since the middle of the
twentieth century by increasing the proportion of the country’s population living in
towns, as officially defined (any settlement with at least 5,000 people) over the years: it
rose from 9% in 1931 to 31.3% in 1984 and 43.8% in 2000.
 However, modern urbanization in Ghana, is focused mainly in Accra–Tema (the capital
city of Ghana) and two other urban nuclei in the country (large urban centers in the
country).
 In terms of urbanization the greater Accra Region and Ashanti Region are on one hand
and the other eight Regions are other the other hand of the scale.
URBAN POPULATION MEASUREMENT IN GHANA
AS AT 2015.

PULL FACTORS
Health facilities
High standard of living
High standard of education
Better recreational facilities
Job opportunities
Better security of life and property
Better social environment
PUSH FACTORS
Poverty
Low living standard
Lack of security of life and poverty
Worse sanitary conditions
Lack of transportation
Lack of health facilities
Lack of educational facilities
Lack of recreational facilities
Lack of job opportunities
DETERMINANTS OF
URBANIZATION
 Pull factors are the
attractive factors that
attracts individual to
change place of living
 Push factors are those
factors which motivates
individuals to leave rural
due to some reasons and
shifts back to urban areas
 DETERMINANTS OF URBANIZATION GLOBALLY
 The latest revision of the UN World Urbanization Prospects (2011) predicts the world's
urban population to increase by 1.4 billion between 2010 and 2030, implying that close to
60% of the world's population (currently 50%) will live in cities by 2030.
 Industrialization in turn is believed to involve urbanization, as externalities of scale in
manufacturing and services attract firms and workers into the cities.
 Through Agglomeration, scale externalities and knowledge spillovers is enormous, which
decreases firm’s production cost based on the size of their own industry. This is central to
urbanization.
DETERMINANTS
 Education: measured in average years of schooling of the adult population.
 Industrialization: measured as non-agricultural share of GDP.
 Population density: is the population per square kilometer of land.
 DETERMINANTS CONTINUES

Population growth: is the average annual rate of population growth (in 5-year growth
averages).
Trade: is the volume of exports plus imports as a percentage of GDP.
The interaction industry and trade: it serves as a proxy for manufactured exports rather than
agricultural exports.
Primacy: is a measure of urban concentration (population of the largest city as a percentage
of the total urban population).
Democracy: it is an index for democratic systems
Instability: this switches on if there has been a regime change in the last 5 years (where a
regime change is defined as a change of three or more points in the democracy index).
Road density: is (km of roads per square km of land area) is used as a proxy for
infrastructure
 GHANA’S PERFORMANCE IN THE CONTEXT OF D3s
D1: DENSITY

POPULATION DENSITY OF GHANA

Volta, 8.6 Greater From the above chart, Ashanti Region is the most
Upper West, Accra, 16.3
2.8
populous region in the country with a total
Upper East, 4.2

population of 4,780,380 out of a total population of

Northern, 10.1 24,658,823 of Ghana, and that makes up a
percentage of 19.4 for the country, followed by
Ashanti, 19.4

Greater Accra with a total population of 4,010,054

Brong Ahafo,
9.4
making a percentage of 16.3 of the total. Due to the
dense nature of these two doing business within is
Central, 8.9
Eastern, 10.7
easy and there is less transportation cost involved.
Western, 9.6
 POPULATION DISTRIBUION BY URBAN AND RURAL

Ghana Population Distribution by Urban and Rural The above chart shows that though the Ashanti
120
Region has the largest population with 4,780,380
people, but only 2,897,290 (60.6%) out of the
100

16.3
total live in urban areas and the remaining
21
30.3 33.7 1,883.090 (39.4%) live in rural areas, as
Percentage

80 42.4 43.4
47.1 44.5
50.9
60.6 compared to the Greater Accra which is the
60
90.5 second largest city has 90.5% (3,630,955) out of
40 79
83.7 4,010,054 people living in the urban area, the
69.7
57.6
52.9 56.6 55.5
66.3

49.1
remaining 9.5% (379,099) of the people live in
20 39.4
rural areas, hence the Greater Accra is the most
0
9.5 urbanized city in Ghana with a density of
approximately 1,236 persons per square
kilometer, followed by the Central region with a
Axis Title
population density of 224 persons per square
RURAL URBAN
kilometer.
 NATURE OF URBAN AREAS IN GHANA

The Northern region still remains the

most sparsely populated region with a
population density of 35 persons per
square kilometer

The concentration of industries and

commercial activities in Greater Accra
and Ashanti may partly account for the
relatively high urban population in
these regions. And these cities are
located around the coastal areas.
RURAL AREAS IN GHANA
 D2: DISTANCE

 In Ghana, the means of travel is basically by Road, Air, railway, Maritime and by inland means of
travelling.
 Most of industries in Ghana are concentrated in the Greater Accra region (national capital), this is
where the sea and the international airport is located, to further enhance easy exportation of
goods.
 Thus the short distance between the industrial site and the major international transportation hub
will make international trade much easy.
 And also some industries located in Ashanti regional capital (Kumasi) where distance to Accra is
about 30minutes by air.
 The closeness of these industries will enhance agglomeration economies thus enjoyment of higher
specialized labor, share of research and development, knowledge spill-over, concentration of
share of resources and clients.
 And all the above leads to more concentration of people in these areas, which creates modern
Urbanization
 DISTANCE CONTINUES
 Road transportation continues to be the most dominant and accessible. Basically ghana
main source of transportation is by road.
 The aviation industry which is the second means of transportation in Ghana is becoming
vibrant and it is expanding in terms of infrastructure, operations and services.
 The total route length and track length of the rail network is 947 km and 1300 km
respectively. It is limited to the southern part of Ghana within the Greater Accra, Central,
Western, Eastern and Ashanti regions.
 There are two main seaports in Ghana which are located in the southern coastal cities of
Tema and Takoradi.
 Inland water transport includes the movement of passengers and cargo on rivers, lakes and
other water bodies in the country. The Volta Lake is the major inland water transport
facility that is efficiently regulated by the Government to transport passengers and cargo.
NATURE OF URBAN AND RURAL AREA ROADS IN GHANTURE
OLD RAILWAY IN GHANA PLANS FOR NEW RAIL IN GHANA
D3: DIVISION
LANGUAGE

 From statistics, Ghana has over 79 local languages, but the officially recognized language is
English. In terms of doing business abroad, is easier because a wide range of countries
communicate in English and that attracts a lot of foreigners in to the country.
 People with basic education can do business communicating in English, but locally there is
also another wide spoken local dialect ( Twi) well spoken by majority of Ghanaians who can
not speak English, so because communicating among Ghanaians is easy, more people can
easily relocate to any part of the country for business or any other purpose.
 Though some can not speak both English and that local dialect (Twi) and hence interrupt with
business activities.
 D3: DIVISION
TERMS OF TRADE FOR GHANA

Ghana is the 84th largest export economy in the world and the 127th most complex economy
according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). In 2015, Ghana exported $10.5B and
imported $13.8B, resulting in a negative trade balance of $3.28B.
THE TOP EXPORTS OF GHANA
So in terms of openness, Ghana is very open and
EXPORTS COST ($) IMPORTS COST ($)
Gold 4.33B Petroleum 938M
it has made the country very dependent on
Cocoa Beans 41.98B Cars 282M foreign products for it survival. Ghana could have
Crude Petroleum 1.7B Rice 270M manufactured more of it consumer goods but
Cocoa Paste 369M Packaged 240M most of these goods are all imported into the
Medicaments
country leaving most of the local industries
Cocoa Butter 239M
collapsing and which affects urbanization locally.
GHANA TERMS OF TRADE SINCE 1980
 The terms of trade for Ghana are
calculated as the value of its
exports as percent of the value of
its imports.
 An increase in the terms of trade
means that the value of exports is
increasing relative to the value of
imports.
 The country can afford to buy
more imports with the revenue
from its exports.
 For example, an increase in the
price of oil increases (improves)
the terms of trade for the oil-
exporting countries and lowers it
for the other countries
 GHANA FOREIGN INVESTMENT
 The rate of foreign investment also has a positive effects on the urbanization of Ghana.
 Currently, there are a lot of Chinese, American and other investors in the Ghana.
 The presence of these companies and other businesses attract people to move from
rural areas to urban areas to seek employment and to further do business with these
foreigners.
SOME FOERIGN INVESTORS IN THE COUNTRY
 DUKS GROUP LIMITED
 Achievers Investment and Management Limited
 Global Land Finance and Security Ltd.
 Barclays Bank Ghana
 Huawei Ghana
THE TREND OF GHANA FOREIGN INVESTMENTS
 REFERENCES
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