High cost of utility still remains one of the major challenges confronting businesses in Ghana.
This is according to the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI)’s 2016 fourth quarter business barometer report.
According to the report, high cost of credit, multiplicity of taxes and cedi depreciation followed closely as top challenges for businesses.
Comparing the third and fourth quarters of 2016, 70% of businesses surveyed expected business confidence to improve.
This was higher compared to the about 57% recorded in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, the number of businesses who expected business confidence to remain the same dropped from 37 to 26% within the two quarters.
Similarly, businesses who expected confidence to be worse than normal, dropped, from 6.2 to 3%.
The report, therefore, indicates that business confidence is beginning to rise, from 99.0 in the third quarter to 101.6 points in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Also, about 10% more of employers surveyed in the 3rd quarter of 2016 are likely to hire more by the end of March 2017.
Although business expectations of the new government are high, they expect government to address critical issues such as high taxes, high cost of electricity, high cost of credit and check influx of imports.
Meanwhile, businesses are optimistic about improved performance in the first quarter of this year.
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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
