The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has released additional reports from Phase I of the 2024 Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES I), presenting national statistics on Mobile businesses and Open-space businesses in Ghana.
The reports extend the coverage of official business statistics to include enterprises that perate outside fixed structures.
The statistics provides evidence on segments of the economy that have not been consistently captured in national data, highlighting the role of mobile and open-space businesses in employment, income generation, and access to goods and services.
The Government Statistician, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, emphasized the importance of including all forms of business activity in official statistics.
He noted that “These findings extend the boundary of official statistics to include businesses that operate beyond ixed structures.
”By capturing mobile and open-space businesses, we are providing evidence on a significant segment of the economy that supports areas such as employment, income generation, and access to goods and services across the country.”
He explained that mobile businesses does not operate in a fixed location or structure, but operates while in motion, either by hawking or with the aid of motorised vehicles, adding that goods are directly delivered to commuters and households.
He pointed out that the survey identified 82,920 mobile business operators nationwide.
Women accounted for 4,237 operators, representing 77.5 percent, while 52,000 operators, representing over 60 percent, are aged between 15 and 35 years.
Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions together account for 50.4 percent of operators, with Greater Accra alone accounting for 30.1 percent.
At the district level, Accra Metropolitan
recorded 5,321 operators and Kumasi Metropolitan recorded 3,792 operators.
A total of 2,087 children aged 10 to 14 years are engaged in mobile business activity, with 80 percent being girls.
Dr.Alhassan highlighted that ownership of goods varies by age, with 14.7 percent of children aged 0 to 14 owning the goods they sell, compared with over 91 percent among operators aged 5 years and above.
He further explained that open-space businesses on the other hand, operate at fixed locations in open environments, including roadsides, pavements, market peripheries, and residential areas.
The survey identified 693,748 open-space businesses employing 922,177 people nationwide.
Women account for 79.5 percent of workers and 84 percent of business owners.
Food and beverage trade accounts for 68.4 percent of open-space business activity, while non-food retail accounts for 15.5 percent and services account for 16.0 percent.
Greater Accra accounts for 23.5 percent of businesses, Ashanti for 17.1 percent, and Central Region for 10.7 percent.
The findings further show that 31.3 percent of businesses earn GH₵100 or less per day, while 21.0 percent earn GH₵500 or more.
He disclosed that, a total of 53,000 open-space businesses operate as mobile money agents.
He noted that “they also highlight constraints, including limited access to finance, exposure to risk, and gaps in social protection.”
The Ghana Statistical Service urged policymakers, local authorities, development partners, and the private sector to use the findings to inform policy, planning, and programme design.
Source: Christabel Opare
