2024 Ghana Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES)
Introduction
The 2024 Ghana Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) will be the fourth conducted in Ghana. Previous economic censuses conducted were in 1987, 2003, and 2014, with the first two focusing only on the industry sector of the economy.
The Survey will be conducted in two phases, with Phase I focusing on a comprehensive list of all business units within the country. Thus, Phase I of the 2024 Ghana Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES I) is an economic census that seeks to enumerate ALL BUSINESS UNITS across all sectors of the Ghanaian economy. These targeted businesses are economic units that engage in legal activities, irrespective of status and size. Therefore, businesses that are for-profit or not-for-profit, large or small, in towns or villages, at physical locations or online, at markets, shops, offices or within residential facilities and all other locations, will be enumerated.
Phase II of the 2024 Ghana Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES II) will precede IBES I, which will cover only selected establishments from the IBES I for more detailed information.
The 2024 Ghana IBES has the slogan IBES, Data for Prudent Business Decisions
Objectives of 2024 Ghana IBES
The specific objectives of the 2024 Ghana IBES are to:
- Build an updated online business register,
- Update the categorisation of businesses,
- Profile the distribution of businesses by their firmographics,
- Access the worth of businesses, and
- Determine changes in the structure of businesses over time.
New Features of 2024 Ghana IBES
- Expanded scope to include businesses not in structures,
collection of geospatial data,
- Automation of data collection processes, and
the addition of new modules on digital finance and environmental responsiveness.
Key broad categories on the policy relevance of business data for Ghana’s development
- Data on the characteristics of Ghanaian businesses,
- Business-centred support,
- Understanding business performance and growth,
- Business data analytics, and
- Benchmarks for economic indicators.
Some Benefits of IBES Data
2024 Ghana IBES I will provide updated data on:
Activities, locations, ownership, ages, and sizes of businesses to inform policy, planning, and monitoring of business growth and national development programmes.
The current structure of Ghana’s economy to facilitate the revision of key macroeconomic indicators including Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Producer Price Index (PPI), and the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
Employment status of workers employed by businesses to help bridge the gap between the labour needs of firms and available skills resident in Ghana.
Characteristics of the informal sector to guide the development of policies aimed at formalising the economy and improving the welfare of workers in the sector.
Types of Businesses Targeted Under the 2024 Ghana IBES I
The types of businesses targeted under the 2024 Ghana IBES I are, all:
- Production units whose physical locations are fixed can be described and traced.
- Stores/containers that are not used solely for domestic activities.
- Fitting shops, fabrication shops, carpentry shops, block-making factories, etc.
- Churches or temples, or mosques.
- Public sector institutions.
- Institutions (housed in a structure) engaged in agriculture and agriculture-related activities, usually called institutional agriculture, e.g., poultry farms, greenhouse farming etc.
- Shops/stores/units of production which are visible or attached to the residential premise.
- Businesses with signposts/ boards/ indications of business activities.
- Shops in a complete structure (popularly called store) in the marketplace.
- Stalls in the marketplace.
- Educational institutions (both public and private)
- Health facilities, e.g., hospitals/ clinics/ maternity homes.
- Mobile businesses, e.g., hawkers
- Businesses in open spaces, but usually operate from the same locations.
- Businesses in residential structures.
- Business units operating on small tables in the marketplace and neighbourhoods, sometimes covered with umbrellas, e.g., market sheds and momo agents on the tabletop, kenkey sellers on tabletops, and shoemakers on tabletops.
- All business units operating under sheds in the marketplace and neighbourhoods, e.g., coconut sellers, animal (goat and dog) traders, etc.
- Online businesses
The Need for Conducting 2024 Ghana IBES I
- Build an online Statistical Business Register (SBR) that can be updated regularly for a digital database of businesses and their operations.
- Profile the distribution of businesses by their firmographics to understand the types of businesses in Ghana, their locations, sizes, who owns them, what they do etc.
- To assess and understand the worth of businesses in the country and to identify struggling surviving firms for support.
- Determine changes in the structure of businesses so that structural economic changes are measured and monitored for effective policy planning and implementation.
- Produce an updated sampling frame for conducting future firm sample surveys.
- Identify Green firms operating in the country so that we can monitor and review environmental programs that can effectively address industrial pollution and degradation.
- Analyse labour market demand-side indicators to inform employment-related policies to address unemployment.
- Develop a maiden profile of businesses that adopt digital finance to understand the extent of digital finance adoption among businesses in Ghana.
- Identify the nature of mobile businesses to inform programs that will improve their operations.
How Are We Conducting 2024 Ghana IBES I?
The plan for IBES I involves visiting every:
- Building or structure or shed and asking managers and business owners questions about their business operations.
- Businesses in open spaces but operating from the same location, and asking them a few questions about what they do there.
- Online business owners or operators and asking him/her a few questions about their operations.
- Business, operating while in motion, and asking the owner or operator a few questions.
2024 Ghana IBES I Fieldwork
IBES 1 main training will start on the 8th January 2024 and will subsequently be followed by the fieldwork from the 15th of January 2024.
Who Will Consume the IBES Data?
- Establishments can use data for evidence-based business decisions to enhance their turnover and competitive advantage.
- The Ministry of Finance and Government will have access to accurate data on the informal sector, facilitating effective policy for growth.
- The Ministry of Finance and the government will have access to accurate data on micro, small, and medium-scale businesses, facilitating effective policy for the growth of these businesses.
- The Ministry of Employment, the Government, and Development Partners will have access to accurate data on employment that will enable prudent decisions for possible employment benefits.
- The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) will have accurate data to rebase the GDP, PPI, and IIP, reflecting the structural economic changes to evaluate growth and development programs.
- Researchers, government, and development partners can monitor business growth and development programs effectively.
Management of the 2024 Ghana IBES
The Ghana Statistical Service is the implementation agency through the leadership of the Government Statistician and responsible for the day-to-day operations of the 2024 Ghana IBES.
A National Steering Committee (NSC) has been composed to provide strategic guidance and general oversight of 2024 Ghana IBES I and monitor activities to ensure successful implementation. The 2024 Ghana IBES I NSC comprises institutional representatives from;
- Ministry of Finance,
- Ministry of Trade and Industry,
- Ghana Statistical Service,
- Ghana Revenue Authority,
- National Identification Authority,
- National Development Planning Commission,
- Ghana Enterprise Agency,
- Association of Ghana Industries,
- Ghana Union of Traders Association,
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization
- The World Bank.
Legal Mandate of Ghana Statistical Service
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) is legally mandated to provide comprehensive, reliable, quality, relevant, accurate and timely statistical information to guide national development as stipulated in Section 3 of the Statistical Service Act, 2019 (Act 1003).
Legal Mandate of IBES
IBES I is a legal requirement to be conducted two years after a population census in Ghana, as per the Statistical Service Act 2019 (Act 1003). IBES is being conducted in alignment with the 2021 Population and Housing Census.
Confidentiality of Data to be Provided
All responses are strictly confidential and protected by the Statistical Service Act 2019 (Act 1003). Violation of confidentiality of data is an offence.
Data will be anonymised by the Ghana Statistical Service before analysis, and only aggregated data will be reported in accordance with the Statistical Service Act, 2019 (Act 1003).
