Ghana’s population in 2015 was estimated to be around 27.6 million, making it the most populous country in West Africa. The majority of Ghanaian citizens identify as Christian, with a sizeable minority of Muslims also present. The Ghanaian economy is heavily reliant on the export of commodities such as cocoa, gold and oil, with cocoa alone accounting for nearly half of the country’s exports. Other exports include timber and diamonds. Ghana has strong trade ties with its African neighbours, particularly Nigeria, as well as other countries worldwide. In terms of politics, Ghana is a unitary presidential constitutional democracy with a multi-party system. In 2015 John Dramani Mahama was the president after winning reelection in 2012. In foreign relations, Ghana is a member of both the United Nations and African Union and is actively involved in international affairs such as peacekeeping operations. Relations with its West African neighbours have been mostly positive but tensions remain between Ghana and Ivory Coast over maritime border disputes. See ehealthfacts for Ghana in the year of 2005.
Yearbook 2015
Ghana. The dispute over the border demarcation between Ghana and Ivory Coast continued during the year. According to COUNTRYAAH, Accra is the capital of Ghana which is located in Western Africa. The Ivory Coast has demanded that Ghana until now cease all oil recovery in the disputed sea area. However, in April the International Maritime Law Court (ITLOS) granted Ghana the right to proceed with ongoing recovery. However, new drilling is not allowed until the issue is settled, which is expected to happen in 2017. A total recovery stop was considered too damaging for Ghana, which is already plagued by severe economic problems. To help the country stabilize the economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) granted Ghana a loan of just over US $ 900 million in February.
- Also see AbbreviationFinder.org for Ghana country abbreviations, including geography, history, economy and politics.
In June, about 100 people were killed when a gas station in the capital, Accra, caught fire. Due to rain and the city’s inadequate sewage system, the gas station was flooded and a fiery fire broke out. Dozens of people who applied to the station for protection from the rain were burned alive. In addition, the floods demanded the lives of about 50 other people. To honor the victims of the tragedy, President John Dramani Mahama announced three days of country grief.
After a corruption scandal was revealed in September, dozens of judges were suspended from their posts, including seven judges working in the High Court, one of the highest judicial bodies in the country.
Physical characteristics. – The town consists of a low and sandy coastline from Axim up to the Volta river and beyond, behind which the coastal zone widens (coastal zone), the depth of which varies up to a maximum of about 100 km. It is a flat region, on which some small hilly undulations and some isolated peaks rise. It is unusually dry, taking into account the latitude in which it is located, since the SW winds, given the course of the coast, blow parallel to it: at the 685 mm of Accra it descends, proceeding to the East, to the 508 mm per year of Christiansborg. The soil is not poor at all, but the scarcity of rains allows you only herbaceous and bushy vegetation, with some rare tall trees. It is here that the bulk of the export and import trade takes place, for which several urban centers have sprung up along the coast, by no means negligible: thus Accra, among other things the seat of the government, one of the commercial centers of the country, with a popul. (including new neighborhoods) of 150,000 residents; so the urban agglomeration of Sekondi-Takoradi, with 44,500 residents and a modern equipped port in Takoradi. The other centers are mostly fishing villages.
Behind the coastal area, that is, in the northern part of the Gold Coast proper and in Ashanti, there is a rather humid region: where the closed and compact forest grows, typical of countries with a warm humid climate (up to 1650 mm per year). This is a hilly and partly mountainous region: its forest mantle has a surface area. which is around 30,000 km 2and it is precisely from this that the well-being of the country largely derives. It is here that the cultivation of cocoa has developed above all and consequently the most important center of the internal regions has developed: Kumasi (78,000 residents), initially a military base against the invasions of the Ashanti and today the main center for the collection and distribution of homonymous territory. It is also reached by the two most important railway lines of the Gh: one coming from Accra and the other from Sekondi-Takoradi. Further north, beyond the forest, extends the savannah, which is crossed by the hydrographic system of the Volta. Given the seasonal rhythm of rainfall (in Salaga limited to the period from May to October, with an annual average of 1143 mm), the entire northern region, flat and slightly undulating, is covered by savannah, with the possibility of economic development lower than the forest region, but greater than the coastal region. Northern invaders established solid state bodies there, such as that of Dagomba, but later the Northern Territories were subject to the influence of Islam.