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Ghana’s Infrastructure : A Continental PerspectiveInfrastructure contributed just over one percentage point to Ghana's annual per capital GDP growth during the 2000s. Raising the country s infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries could boost the annual growth rate by more than 2.7 percentage points. Ghana has an advanced infrastructure platform when compared with other low-income countries in Africa. The country s coverage levels for rural water, electricity, and GSM signals are impressive. A large share of the road network is in good or fair condition. Institutional reforms have been adopted in the ICT, ports, roads, and water supply sectors. Ghana s most pressing challenges lie in the power sector, where outmoded transmission and distribution assets, rapid demand growth, and periodic hydrological shocks leave the country reliant on high-cost oil-based generation. Exceptionally high losses in water distribution leave little to reach end customers, who are thus exposed to intermittent supplies. Addressing Ghana's infrastructure challenges will require raising annual expenditures to $2.3 billion. The country already spends about $1.2 billion per year on infrastructure, equivalent to about 7.5 percent of GDP. A further $1.1 billion is lost each year to inefficiencies, notably underpricing of power.Ghana's annual infrastructure funding gap is about $0.4 billion per year, chiefly related to power and water. Following its recent oil discoveries, Ghana can raise additional public funding from increased tax receipts. The country has several strong areas on which to build and a solid economic base from which to fund incremental efforts.
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Ghana's InfrastructureInfrastructure contributed just over one
 percentage point to Ghana's improved per capita growth
 performance during the 2000s, though unreliable power
 supplies held growth back by 0.5 percentage points. Raising
 the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the
 region's middle-income countries could boost annual
 growth by more than 2.7 percentage points. Today, Ghana has
 a very advanced infrastructure platform when compared with
 other low-income countries in Africa. But as the country
 approaches the middle-income threshold, it will need to
 focus on upgrading its infrastructure indicators in line
 with this benchmark. The Africa Infrastructure Country
 Diagnostic (AICD) has gathered and analyzed extensive data
 on infrastructure in more than 40 Sub-Saharan countries,
 including Ghana. The results have been presented in reports
 covering different areas of infrastructure, including ICT,
 irrigation, power, transport, water, and sanitation, and
 different policy areas, including investment needs, fiscal
 costs, and sector performance. This report presents the key
 AICD findings for Ghana and allows the country's
 infrastructure situation to be benchmarked against its
 African peers. Given that Ghana is a relatively well-off
 low-income country well on its way to reaching middle-income
 status, two sets of African benchmarks will be used to
 evaluate Ghana's situation. Detailed comparisons will
 also be made with immediate regional neighbors in the
 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). As on
 the rest of the continent, West Africa's growth
 performance improved markedly in the 2000s. The overall
 improvement in per capita growth rates has been estimated at
 around 2 percent, of which 1.1 percent is attributable to
 better structural policies and 0.9 percent to improved
 infrastructure. During the five years from 2003 to 2007,
 Ghana's economy grew at an average annual rate of 5.6
 percent, which accelerated to 7.3 percent in 2009.
 Ghana's infrastructure improvements added just over one
 percentage point to the per capita growth rate for the
 period 2003 to 2007.
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Sierra Leone’s Infrastructure : A Continental PerspectiveInfrastructure development in Sierra
 Leone contributed about half a percentage point to the
 economy's per capita growth rate in 2003-07. But if
 Sierra Leone could upgrade its infrastructure to the level
 of the best performer in Africa, per capita growth rates
 could be boosted by more than three percentage points. After
 nine years of peace, economic activity is flourishing at
 every level in Sierra Leone. But the 11-year civil war
 destroyed the country's infrastructure, and rebuilding
 the road network and ports while improving the electrical,
 water, and telecommunications infrastructure is proving
 difficult. Looking ahead, expanding electrification is a top
 priority because current access levels, at only 1-5 percent
 of the urban population and 0 percent in rural areas, are
 impeding other development. The water and sanitation sector
 faces similar challenges, as only 1 percent of the rural
 population has access to piped water. Sierra Leone has been
 spending about $134 million annually on infrastructure in
 recent years. About $66 million is lost each year to
 inefficiencies. Comparing spending needs against existing
 spending and potential efficiency gains leaves an annual
 funding gap of $59 to $278 million per year. If savings from
 greater efficiency could be fully captured, Sierra Leone
 would not meet its posited infrastructure targets for
 another 30 years. Sierra Leone needs to make difficult
 decisions about the prioritization of infrastructure
 investments and must think strategically about bundling and
 sequencing investments for maximum returns.