Ghana’s Infrastructure Push: What the Country Needs From Its Heavy Equipment Sector

News Ghana
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Ghana’s Infrastructure Push: What the Country Needs From Its Heavy Equipment Sector

Ghana’s construction and mining industries are expanding at a pace that demands more from the country’s heavy equipment sector than ever before. With a $10 billion national infrastructure strategy now in motion, construction output growing at 5.9% in 2026, and gold production hitting record levels, the question is no longer whether Ghana has the ambition to build — it is whether the equipment supply chain can keep up.

What Is Driving Ghana’s Construction Boom?

Ghana’s construction sector, valued at approximately $8 billion and accounting for more than 15% of annual GDP, has entered a period of sustained acceleration. The drivers are converging from multiple directions at once.

In December 2025, Parliament approved the 2026 Budget with a total allocation of GHS357.1 billion ($20.4 billion), a 21.8% increase over the 2025 allocation. Infrastructure is a central priority within that figure. The government’s flagship Big Push programme, a GHS166.8 billion ($10 billion) initiative backed by the African Development Bank, targets the construction and rehabilitation of major highways, regional roads, rural access routes, cross-border corridors, and rail infrastructure. Under the programme, 32 road infrastructure projects have been approved, including the dualization of key highways, a new bridge over the Oti River at Dambai, the Kumasi Outer Ring Road, and the reconstruction of the Dodowa–Afienya–Dawhenya Road.

Housing is another front. The Ministry of Works and Housing reported in early 2026 that Ghana’s housing deficit stands at over 1.8 million units. Construction of 2,000 military housing units is already underway, with a target of 10,000 by 2030. Private-sector investment is adding further momentum across Accra, Kumasi, and Tema. The U.S. International Trade Administration has described construction and infrastructure as the single best prospect industry in Ghana.

How Is the Mining Sector Increasing Equipment Demand?

Ghana’s mining industry is compounding the pressure on the equipment sector. The country is now Africa’s leading gold producer, and the numbers from 2025 underscore the scale of activity.

Total attributable gold production reached 5.94 million ounces in 2025, a 23.4% increase over the previous year. Mineral export earnings nearly doubled, rising from $11.98 billion in 2024 to $21.36 billion in 2025 — accounting for more than 68% of Ghana’s total merchandise exports. The mining and quarrying sector also remained the country’s largest source of direct domestic tax revenue, contributing GHS23.11 billion.

What makes this growth particularly relevant for the equipment sector is the structural shift underway. Small-scale mining, now formalised through the Ghana Gold Board, contributed more than half of national gold output for the first time in 2025, with production surging by over 63%. This means thousands of additional mining operations — many in remote, difficult-to-access locations — requiring excavators, wheel loaders, dump trucks, and support equipment. With 2026 output projected at up to 6.9 million ounces across both segments, reliable access to heavy machinery and spare parts is becoming more critical than ever.

Where Are the Equipment Gaps?

Despite the growth in construction and mining activity, Ghana’s heavy equipment sector faces structural challenges that limit its ability to support the pace of development.

Parts availability and lead times. Most heavy machinery in Ghana is imported, and spare parts follow the same route. When a component fails at a mining operation near Tarkwa or a road project in the Northern Region, the replacement may need to be sourced from Europe or East Asia — stretching lead times to weeks while the machine sits idle.

Counterfeit components. The informal spare parts market remains active, and substandard components are a persistent problem. These parts fail prematurely, creating repeat breakdowns and raising maintenance costs far beyond what genuine components would have cost.

Limited after-sales infrastructure. Equipment is frequently sold into Ghana without an accompanying service network. When a machine requires major repair, there is often no local recourse — forcing operators to improvise or absorb the cost of flying in specialists.

Fragmented supply. Many operators source different machine types from different suppliers, each with separate parts channels and service arrangements, making fleet management more complex and more vulnerable to disruption.

What Does Ghana Need From Its Equipment Partners?

The equipment sector’s ability to match the country’s infrastructure ambition depends on a shift from transactional supply toward embedded partnership.

Local distribution with genuine parts stockholding. Distributors that maintain warehouses in Ghana, stocked with high-turnover components, can reduce parts lead times from weeks to days — a single change with an outsized impact on project continuity.

Multi-brand portfolios under a single service umbrella. When a contractor can source excavators, wheel loaders, forklifts, and telehandlers through one distributor with consistent service standards and a unified parts pipeline, fleet management becomes simpler and more resilient.

Trained technicians positioned locally. Distributors that invest in training Ghanaian technicians and positioning them close to project sites deliver faster response times and build local technical capacity simultaneously.

HMD, which operates a facility in Tema and has been active in the market for over two decades, is one distributor that has built its model around these principles — distributing multiple premium machinery brands alongside genuine spare parts, with on-the-ground after-sales support from trained engineers and technicians. It is the kind of approach that Ghana’s growing construction and mining sectors increasingly require, and that more equipment suppliers will need to adopt as demand scales.

Can Ghana’s Equipment Sector Scale With Its Ambitions?

The opportunity ahead is substantial. Ghana’s construction industry is forecast to grow at an average annual rate of 5% through 2030. The Big Push programme alone involves 32 major road projects. The mining sector is projecting record output. And the housing deficit of 1.8 million units represents a generational building challenge.

But the equipment sector cannot scale through machine sales alone. The contractors and miners driving Ghana’s growth need service ecosystems — parts warehouses measured in hours away, not weeks; technicians who understand the laterite conditions outside Kumasi; distributors who see Ghana as a market worth investing in permanently, not just an export destination.

The infrastructure is being funded and the projects approved. Whether the heavy equipment sector builds the support structures to keep it all moving will determine how much of Ghana’s ambition translates into reality.

Ghana Business Conditions Worsen As Orders Fall

Roger A. Agana
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Ghana Business Conditions Worsen As Orders Fall

Ghana’s private sector recorded its sharpest drop in business conditions since January 2023 in June, as new orders fell for the first time in five months.

The S&P Global Ghana Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 47.7 in June from 50.0 in May, according to data released by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Respondents linked the decline to funding shortages among customers, which weakened demand at the fastest pace in more than three and a half years.

The renewed pressure on orders came as Ghana’s currency faced its own strain. The cedi depreciated 8.4 percent against the dollar over the first five months of 2026, a steeper fall than the 6.6 percent recorded over the same period last year, according to the Bank of Ghana’s own economic summary. The central bank injected 2.01 billion dollars into the foreign exchange market in June alone to meet rising dollar demand, split between its Forex Intermediation Programme and a separate intervention scheme. PwC Ghana country senior partner Vish Ashiagbor said the moves had helped steady the currency, though pressure has not fully eased.

Business output fell for a third straight month in June, matching the pace of the drop in new orders and marking the sharpest such decline since January 2023. The manufacturing and wholesale and retail sectors accounted for much of the weakness. Companies also grew less confident about growth over the coming year, with sentiment easing to a 16 month low, though hopes that prices would stabilize kept overall optimism intact.

Firms continued adding staff despite the slowdown, extending a run of monthly job growth that began in February 2025, even as they used the extra capacity to work through existing backlogs rather than respond to fresh demand. Staff costs rose faster than in May, which firms linked to cost of living pressures, while purchase prices climbed for a third consecutive month on exchange rate effects and import costs. Companies passed some of that on to customers, pushing selling prices up at their fastest pace since April 2025.

Andrew Harker, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said the reading capped a weak stretch for Ghanaian firms. “It was a disappointing end to the first half of the year,” he said.

The weakness fits a longer pattern. A separate analysis by Haver Analytics found Ghana among a small group of economies, along with France, Russia, Egypt and Qatar, whose PMI readings have averaged below the 50 growth threshold over the past three, six and twelve months, suggesting June’s decline reflects sustained softness rather than an isolated dip.

Harker said the PMI figures point to a slight softening in second quarter GDP growth, though official data are still expected to show the economy continued expanding overall.

Afrobarometer Begins New Survey Round Across Africa

Roger A. Agana
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Afrobarometer Begins New Survey Round Across Africa

Afrobarometer, the Accra based polling network, has begun Round 11 fieldwork in Zimbabwe and Gabon, aiming to survey citizens in 40 African countries by 2027.

The launch follows a Round 10 cycle that already shaped policy conversations across the continent. Across 24 countries surveyed in 2024, nearly half of respondents, 47 percent, said they had considered leaving their country, with more than a quarter describing the idea as a serious consideration. Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko recently cited separate Afrobarometer findings showing that about three quarters of young people between 18 and 35 prefer entrepreneurship over public sector jobs, using the data to frame his government’s economic messaging.

Round 11 builds on that foundation. Afrobarometer completed Round 10 surveys in 38 countries during 2024 and 2025 and now expects to reach 40 countries by 2027, representing close to 80 percent of Africa’s population. The new round adds modules on democratic resilience, Africa’s place in international politics, financial inclusion and political populism, while expanding existing sections on gender equality, taxation and climate change. Organizers also shortened the questionnaire to reduce fatigue among respondents.

Boniface Dulani, the network’s director of surveys, said the timing matters given the pace of change across the continent. “Understanding the perspectives of ordinary citizens is more important than ever,” he said.

The surveys rely on face to face interviews with citizens aged 18 and older, conducted by national partner organizations working alongside national statistics offices in each country. Respondents are chosen through random, probability based sampling, with a 50/50 gender alternation method used to ensure equal representation of men and women. Results can be broken down by age, location, education and economic status.

Afrobarometer traces part of its origins to Ghana’s Center for Democratic Development, whose founder, Emmanuel Gyimah Boadi, chairs the network’s board. Data from the surveys feed into global measures such as the Ibrahim Index of African Governance and the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators, and are used by credit rating and forecasting agencies including the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Van der Vaart Baffled by Haaland Before Quarterfinal

Roger A. Agana
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Van der Vaart Baffled by Haaland Before Quarterfinal

Rafael van der Vaart says Erling Haaland defies easy analysis ahead of Norway’s World Cup quarterfinal against England in Miami on Saturday.

The tie carries weight for both sides. Norway have reached the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in their history, while England are chasing just their fourth run to the semifinals from eleven quarterfinal appearances, a tally bettered only by Brazil and Germany.

Haaland has driven that run almost single handedly. He has scored in all four of Norway’s matches so far, netting seven of the team’s twelve goals and sharing the race for the tournament’s top scorer award with Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi. Former Real Madrid and Tottenham midfielder van der Vaart, speaking to AceOdds.com, said Haaland can look anonymous for long stretches before suddenly deciding a match. “That is an unbelievable mental strength to have,” he said.

Van der Vaart, who played alongside Harry Kane at Tottenham, said he would still choose Kane over Haaland if picking one to play with, largely because Kane’s willingness to stay central would suit his own passing game from midfield. He rated both strikers among the finest of their generation regardless.

He also flagged two tactical points ahead of kickoff. He believes Martin Ødegaard has been dropping too deep to collect the ball rather than operating higher up the pitch, and he credited Jude Bellingham for exploiting the space left by the absence of Cole Palmer and Phil Foden from England’s squad. Bellingham has already become the first midfielder to score four or more goals in a single World Cup campaign for England, doing so with a brace against Mexico in the last round.

Questions remain over goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, who is set to equal Peter Shilton’s record for England appearances at the tournament. Van der Vaart said Pickford falls short of the world’s elite but that England lack a stronger alternative. Pickford has conceded seven of the ten shots on target Haaland has taken against him in the Premier League, more than the Norwegian has scored past any other goalkeeper bar three.

England go into the match without vice captain Jordan Henderson, who broke his arm during celebrations after the win over Mexico, and with Jarrell Quansah suspended at right back.

Quotes courtesy of AceOdds.com.

Hormuz Toll Plan Threatens Global Trade Costs

Roger A. Agana
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Hormuz Toll Plan Threatens Global Trade Costs

Iran and Oman have proposed jointly charging fees on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz this month, a plan Washington opposes but that could raise global shipping costs.

The proposal, reported by NBC News and The New York Times, would have Tehran and Muscat jointly administer the waterway and collect fees from commercial vessels. It follows a 60 day memorandum signed last month between Washington and Tehran guaranteeing free passage through the strait, which carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas trade. That agreement left the strait’s longer term governance to be worked out between Iran and Oman.

The two sides disagree on how any charge would work. An unnamed Iranian official told reporters the payments would be mandatory, while Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al Busaidi, has said Muscat supports only voluntary charges modeled on the funding arrangement used in the Strait of Malacca. Maritime law specialists, including James Holmes of the United States Naval War College, have said international law does not allow a coastal state to charge vessels simply for passing through a natural waterway, regardless of what the fee is called.

The White House has rejected the idea outright. President Trump has called a toll system unacceptable, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would oppose any payment scheme for the strait, whether labeled a fee, a toll or a voluntary contribution.

Nigel Green, chief executive of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory firms, argues the toll question deserves more investor attention than the recent military escalation in the region. He said a permanent fee would create lasting costs across global trade rather than a one time shock. “Charging the world to use it is a far more effective strategy,” he said.

Green expects the added cost of moving oil through the strait to filter into freight rates, insurance premiums and manufacturing costs, pressuring airlines, shipping operators and manufacturers with globally dispersed supply chains. He argues companies with strong pricing power and domestic supply chains would be comparatively insulated.

The proposal remains unresolved. Oman has publicly distanced itself from mandatory charges, and any final arrangement depends on further talks between Tehran, Muscat and Washington before the 60 day window on free passage expires.

Oil Surges Days After Hormuz Risk Warning

Roger A. Agana
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Oil Surges Days After Hormuz Risk Warning

Brent crude jumped more than four percent this week after fresh United States (US) strikes on Iran, days after a deVere Group warning that markets were underpricing Strait of Hormuz risk.

Brent traded near $73 a barrel on July 7, when deVere Group chief executive Nigel Green argued that investors were treating attacks on commercial shipping in the strait as a contained incident rather than a genuine threat to supply. Within two days, the benchmark jumped as much as 4.4 percent in a single session, its biggest daily gain since May, after the US carried out strikes on Iran for a second straight day and Iranian forces struck American military sites in the Gulf. Brent touched roughly $77 to $79 a barrel before easing back into the $73 to $77 range by July 9, as traders reassessed how much oil flow the escalation would actually disrupt.

Green had said the strait carries roughly one fifth of global oil consumption and warned that markets were placing too much faith in diplomacy holding. “Hope isn’t a strategy,” he said.

President Trump declared the US Iran ceasefire over during the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8, following the strikes and the attacks on commercial vessels near Hormuz. Vessel tracking data showed fewer tankers transiting the strait in the days that followed, though traders said substantial volumes kept moving through routes approved by Iran and a separate corridor backed by the US.

The pullback from the week’s highs suggests the disruption Green warned about has not yet fully materialized. Brent remains well short of the $90 level he cited as a hypothetical rather than a forecast, and the scale of any lasting supply impact remains unclear.

Green had pointed to tanker movements, export volumes, freight rates, insurance premiums and refinery activity as the indicators worth tracking over political statements from Washington or Tehran. Markets now turn to the June inflation report due July 14, which will help clarify how much of the recent oil move filters through to prices more broadly.

BRABUS Enters Superyacht Market With AB Yachts

Roger A. Agana
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BRABUS Enters Superyacht Market With AB Yachts

German luxury brand BRABUS will build its first superyachts with Italian builder AB Yachts, debuting at the Monaco Yacht Show in September 2026.

The tie up marks a new tier for BRABUS Marine, the automotive tuner’s boating arm. Its earlier partnerships cover Finnish dayboats with AXOPAR and luxury catamarans with Sunreef Yachts. AB Yachts brings BRABUS into the market for full sized performance superyachts for the first time.

AB Yachts, founded in 1992 and based in Viareggio, Italy, builds vessels ranging from 80 to 130 feet using waterjet propulsion and lightweight, aerospace derived construction. Its largest model, the AB 130, carries up to 12 guests and five crew members and can exceed 50 knots, with some models reaching 60 knots.

BRABUS chief executive and owner Constantin Buschmann said AB Yachts shared the same drive to push boundaries that defines his company’s other projects. “The drive to challenge what is possible,” he said, describing the fit between the two brands.

Giorgio Mattei, deputy chairman of Next Yacht Group, AB Yachts’ parent company, described the partnership as a natural fit built on a shared pursuit of design and performance since the companies’ first meeting.

Details on the size and number of models remain limited. One industry publication said it had asked both companies for specifics on the project’s length and scope but had not received a response by publication time. A teaser image released by the shipyard shows a flying bridge and open transom layout. A second BRABUS Yachts model is already planned for the 2027 Monaco show.

Gold’s Fed Bet Unravels Days After Rally

Roger A. Agana
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Gold’s Fed Bet Unravels Days After Rally

Gold fell to about $4,072 an ounce on July 8, reversing last week’s rally, after renewed Middle East fighting drove oil and rate hike bets higher.

The reversal came fast. Spot gold had climbed to roughly $4,182 an ounce on July 3 after a weak June jobs report, its first weekly gain in more than a month. Federal Reserve minutes released July 8 showed policymakers still worried about inflation, and a missile strike on a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz the day before pushed oil prices sharply higher. President Trump then declared a fragile Iran ceasefire over at the NATO summit, and gold briefly touched an intraday low near $4,022 before settling around $4,081.

Nigel Green, chief executive of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory firms, had argued days earlier that the rally marked a turning point. He said investors had grown too confident that the Fed would hold rates high well into next year. “I think markets have fundamentally mispriced the Fed’s next move,” he said.

His case rested on the June jobs data. The Labor Department reported employers added just 57,000 positions that month, well below forecasts, prompting traders to cut the odds of a Fed rate increase in September to about 50 percent from roughly 66 percent beforehand. Gold had posted its worst quarterly performance in 13 years through June and remained sharply below its January record.

The bet did not hold. Hike odds climbed back toward 53 percent by July 7 as the tanker attack and the collapsed ceasefire reignited inflation concerns tied to oil supply. Saxo Markets strategist Charu Chanana said traders had not yet priced in a full disruption to Gulf shipping, suggesting further swings could follow depending on how the standoff develops.

Markets now await the June inflation report on July 14, which traders and the Fed itself are watching to settle whether this month’s rate path debate tilts back toward gold or away from it.

Dow Tops 53,000 as Wall Street Rotates From Tech

Roger A. Agana
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Dow Tops 53,000 as Wall Street Rotates From Tech

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 53,000 for the first time on July 6, extending a rotation of investor capital away from Big Tech and into value focused sectors of the US economy.

The blue chip index settled at 53,056, days after it first broke 52,900 on July 2 with a 594 point jump, its biggest weekly advance since May. Nine of the S&P 500’s eleven sectors rose that session, led by utilities, financials and consumer staples, while technology lagged.

A weak jobs report triggered the shift. The Labor Department said US employers added just 57,000 positions in June, roughly half the 115,000 economists had forecast, and revised April and May figures down by a combined 74,000. The unemployment rate still eased to 4.2 percent as fewer people searched for work.

Investors read the soft data as reducing pressure on the Federal Reserve, now led by Chair Kevin Warsh, to raise interest rates further. Traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange FedWatch tool priced a roughly 76 percent chance the central bank holds rates steady at its July meeting, up sharply from before the report.

Nigel Green, chief executive of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory firms, said the shift ranks among the most significant since markets recovered from the pandemic. He pointed to years of returns concentrated in a small number of technology companies as the reason capital is now spreading into financials, industrials, healthcare, energy and infrastructure stocks.

The numbers support the broadening. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight exchange traded fund has gained about 9.7 percent this year, ahead of the roughly 8.4 percent return on the market cap weighted SPDR S&P 500 fund, the widest such gap at this point in a year since 1992. The small cap Russell 2000 has climbed 22 percent in the first half, its strongest such run since 1991.

Not every corner of the market shares the enthusiasm. Chip stocks fell for a second straight session on July 6, with Micron down 5.5 percent, Intel off 5.3 percent and AMD sliding 4.3 percent, as investors weighed whether spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure has peaked. Charles Schwab strategist Joe Mazzola has questioned whether the pullback in prior tech winners signals a broader market retreat rather than a healthy rebalancing.

Green remains confident the trend will continue. “Our view is that this trend has further to run,” he said.

Markets now turn to the June inflation report, due July 14, which could reshape expectations heading into the Fed’s next policy meeting.

Africa’s Anti-corruption Gains Called Too Slow

Roger A. Agana
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Africa’s Anti-corruption Gains Called Too Slow

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation said this week that Africa’s anticorruption progress remains too slow and uneven, ahead of African Anticorruption Day on July 11.

The finding comes from preliminary data in the forthcoming 2026 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, covering 2016 to 2025 across all 54 African countries. The continent’s average anticorruption score edged up from 38.6 in 2016 to 39.1 in 2025, but that modest gain hides a rockier path: scores fell steadily to a low of 37.7 in 2020 before recovering 1.4 points over the following five years. Even so, performance deteriorated in 28 countries home to nearly 59 percent of Africa’s population, while only 26 countries, covering just over 40 percent of Africans, saw improvement.

The report found a sharp divide between the public and private sectors. Absence of corruption in the private sector improved by 4.7 points over the decade, the strongest gain of any indicator measured. Public sector corruption showed no overall progress at all, ending 2025 exactly where it started at 40.6, after gains made through 2023 were later lost. Public perception of anticorruption efforts fell further than any other measure, dropping four points.

Rwanda and Seychelles jointly lead the continental ranking at 76.6 points each, with Seychelles recording the largest improvement of any country, up 26.3 points and climbing 12 places over the decade. The rest of the top ten includes Mauritius, Senegal, Benin, Botswana, Namibia, Cabo Verde, Tunisia and Burkina Faso. South Sudan ranks last at 6.9 points, down from 11.6 in 2016, leaving close to a 70 point gap between the continent’s best and worst performers.

Regional blocs also diverged sharply. The Southern African Development Community posted the highest average score at 44.5, while the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in East Africa ranked lowest at 26.9. The Arab Maghreb Union was the only regional bloc where every member state improved, gaining 4.6 points overall.

The foundation also tracked countries that experienced military takeovers since 2020, finding that anticorruption performance worsened faster than the decade long trend in Chad, Gabon, Guinea and Sudan. Burkina Faso and Mali moved the opposite way, with Mali’s score rising 13.7 points since its 2020 coup, well above its 5.8 point gain across the full decade.

The complete 2026 Ibrahim Index, assessing 96 indicators across all 54 African countries, is due for release on October 31. Ghana currently ranks seventh of 54 countries in the index’s overall governance measure, according to the foundation’s data portal.

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