Ghana's Education Spending: How Does It Compare With Other African Countries?

Ghana's government spent 2.91% of the country's GDP on education in 2022, placing it 26th among 42 African countries with comparable data in the dataset. The figure puts Ghana below the international benchmark for public education spending and well behind Africa's highest spenders.

The comparison is based on the World Bank's Government expenditure on education, total (% of GDP) indicator, which uses data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The measure captures government expenditure on education relative to the size of the economy. It should therefore not be interpreted as the percentage of Ghana's government budget allocated to education.

Namibia leads Africa

Namibia recorded the highest education spending ratio among the countries shown, at 9.39% of GDP in 2022. Tunisia followed with 6.80%, while South Africa recorded 6.16%. Mozambique, Senegal and Morocco also allocated close to 6% of GDP to education.

At the other end of the ranking were Uganda at 2.56%, Comoros at 2.43%, Angola at 2.39%, Liberia at 2.28% and Gabon at 2.21%. Nigeria's figure was 0.35%, while Somalia was recorded at 0%.

These extreme figures should, however, be interpreted carefully because education expenditure data are not equally available or comparable across every African country.

Ghana remains below the international benchmark

The more important question for Ghana may not be whether it ranks 26th, but how its spending compares with international financing benchmarks.

UNESCO's Education 2030 framework identifies 4% to 6% of GDP as a benchmark range for government expenditure on education. It also identifies 15% to 20% of total public expenditure as another benchmark. At 2.91% of GDP, Ghana was therefore below the lower end of the GDP benchmark in 2022.

This does not automatically mean that Ghana's education system performs poorly because spending levels alone do not determine educational outcomes. The World Bank notes that countries can meet spending benchmarks while still having relatively low spending per school-age child, particularly where government budgets are small and populations are young. Efficiency and how resources are allocated also matter.

The bigger story is affordability

The African comparison highlights an important distinction between spending priority and spending capacity. A country may devote a large share of GDP to education but still spend less per student than a wealthier country with a smaller percentage. Conversely, a country with a relatively large economy can spend a substantial amount on education while allocating a smaller percentage of GDP.

For Ghana, therefore, the 2.91% figure is best viewed as one indicator of the government's fiscal commitment to education, rather than a complete measure of the country's education investment.

The data nevertheless provide a useful warning. Ghana's education spending share was below the 4% international benchmark, while several African countries were allocating considerably larger shares of their economies to education.

The key question for policymakers is therefore not simply how much Ghana spends, but whether the level and efficiency of that spending are sufficient to deliver better learning outcomes, adequate infrastructure and quality education for a growing population. Join our WhatsApp group to receive data viz insights on Ghana and Africa directly: https://chat.whatsapp.com/JCqBvBWfqjILTxiaCqFhCx?mode=wwt

Source: World Bank World Development Indicators, using UNESCO Institute for Statistics data.