Claim: Over 60% of Ghana’s working population are into agriculture
Source: Bernard Oduro Takyi, Chartered Economist
Verdict: False
Researched by Gifty Danso
A chartered economist, Bernard Oduro Takyi, speaking on GTV’s Breakfast Show on February 17, 2025, claimed that over 60% of Ghana’s working population is in agriculture.
According to him, agriculture is not as complex as other industries; “If you take mining as a field in the industry, it’s very capitalised (capital intensive). We have very few people who are capitalised to enter into mining.
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“But if you take agriculture, all you need is arable land, cutlass, fertiliser, and agrochemicals and you are good to go. And that is why close to over 60% of the working population in Ghana are into agriculture,” he said. (watch between 4:29- 4:54 seconds).
This fact-check will verify this claim.
Fact-check
Agriculture remains a critical pillar of Ghana’s economy as the sector contributes 24.5% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the most recent data, released in December 2024 by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
In terms of the labour force, the sector employs an average of 38.3% according to statistics in Ghana’s 2024 Budget Statement.
“Mr. Speaker, the agricultural sector remains a key driver of Ghana’s economy, employing over 38.3 percent of the total work force and contributed an average of 20 percent of GDP between 2017 and 2022. The sector’s GDP grew at an average rate of 5.9 percent between 2017 and 2022 boosted by Government’s flagship program – Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ),” page 84 of the 2024 Budget reads.
Additionally, the Ghana Statistical Service in its 2023 Quarter 3 Labour Statistics released in February 2024 indicated that 33.9% of the labour force was employed in the agriculture sector, including 39.8% males and 28.8% females.
Fig 1 – Image from GSS data / Page 25
Furthermore, the current data on employment in Ghana’s agriculture sector from the World Bank shows that as of 2023 the employment rate in the agriculture sector is 35%.
Ghana agriculture employment statistics from the World Bank.
From the sources cited above, there are three different figures assigned to the percentage of Ghana’s population working in agriculture. Government of Ghana in the 2024 Budget pegged the figure at 38.3, whereas GSS in Q3 of 2023 reported 33.9. The World Bank citing International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates also put the figure at 35% as at 2023.
It is clear that none of the figures hits even the 40% mark, which means the over 60% claim by Oduro Takyi is false.
When GhanaFact contacted Mr. Oduro Takyi via telephone, he said he did not believe in the official figures reported by GSS, the Government of Ghana and the World Bank. He pointed to cursory analysis of people in the agriculture chain, which he insisted was far more than the range the three institutions cited had reported.
Verdict
Therefore, the claim that over 60% of Ghana’s working population is into agriculture is false!
NOTE: This report has been updated to reflect the views of Mr. Bernard Oduro Takyi.
