Ghana has dropped in its position as a prosperous country. The
country lost nine places to rank 87th out of 142 nations in the 2012
Global Prosperity Index released by the Legatum Institute October 30,
2012.
Ghana ranked 78 out of 110 countries in the 2011 edition and 90 in 2010.
Ghana’s best ranking on the 2012 Index was in Freedom where it placed
39th. The Ghana’s worst ranking was in the area of economy. The country
placed placed 111st.
As compared to the 2011 edition where Ghana placed third in
sub-Saharan Africa, the country this time dropped to the fourth place
after Botswana, South Africa and Namibia who took the first, second and
third position in the region respectively.
Legatum Institute’s prosperity index, now in its sixth year, assesses
global wealth and wellbeing and benchmarks 142 countries around the
world in eight categories – Economy, Education, Entrepreneurship and
opportunity, Governance, Health, Personal freedom, Safety and security
and Social capital
In terms of entrepreneurship and opportunity, Ghana placed 101st as compared to the 2011 edition’s 85th.
According to Legatum, 68.5% of Ghanaians have confidence in the
government while 77.6% of the population has confidence in the country’s
judicial system. In that sense, the index ranked Ghana 54th in terms of
governance as compared to the 51st place in the 2011 Index.
On other areas Ghana was ranked 104th in Education as against 94th in
2011, Health (99th) compared to 87th in 2011, Safety & security
(67th) against 2011’s 55th and Social capital (94th) compared to 71st in
2011.
Norway topped the index while Central African Republic was last.
The Institute sourced its data from Gallup World Poll, the World
Trade Organisation (WTO), World Development Indicators, GDP, World
Intellectual Property Organization, UN Human Development Report, World
Bank, OECD and World Values Survey.
