Africa-Press – Ghana. Dr Worlanyo Mensah, an Economist says efforts to stabilise Ghana’s economy will yield limited results unless the country takes deliberate steps to formalise the informal sector, which he says accounts for about 70 per cent of the local economy.
Dr Mensah noted that a significant proportion of economic activities in Ghana remained outside formal regulatory and data systems as a result, government policies often failed to fully reflect the realities of how most Ghanaians earn a living and contribute to national development.
He told that macroeconomic stability, including fiscal discipline and currency management could not be sustained when the largest segment of the economy operated in the informal sector, which employed millions of people across trading, agriculture, transport, artisanal work, and service do not adequately contribute their quota. He called for a comprehensive social auditing process, supported by digital systems, to properly profile the local economy and said, this approach would make it possible to identify what each Ghanaian does, where they operated, and how their activities contributed to economic growth.
He emphasised that digitisation should be extended to micro and small-scale operators by integrating informal workers into digital identification, payment, and record-keeping systems and called for the adoption of home-grown economic policies that respond to Ghana’s unique social and economic conditions. Dr Mensah advocated for capacity building within metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, to improve their ability to collect revenue and further underscored the importance of decentralising the development agenda, allowing local authorities greater autonomy and resources to drive economic transformation.
He said formalising the informal sector was not merely an administrative exercise but a strategic requirement for sustainable development otherwise economic stabilisation efforts risk excluding the majority of citizens whose daily activities keep the economy functional.
