Ghana in Focus: Living Costs Revealed: Why Ghana Is More Expensive Than You Think

Ghana IS EXPENSIVE!!  The reality on the ground reveals a country where the cost of living can be surprisingly high, particularly for those accustomed to Western standards and products.

The reason why Ghana IS expensive is because it is totally import driven. With the country importing "virtually everything," as highlighted in a previous podcast, consumers face significant mark-ups on everyday items. This means that familiar foods from abroad – cereals, chocolates, cheeses, dairy products, and processed foods – often cost twice or three times as much as they would in Canada, the UK or USA. This price differential persists despite the current government's removal of several controversial taxes including the e-levy, introduced by the previous administration.

For expatriates or returning Ghanaians planning to relocate, the cost implications extend far beyond groceries. Utilities represent another significant expense, with electricity costs having increased approximately ten times over the past year. This becomes particularly burdensome for households using air conditioning regularly or for remote workers requiring constant power. Ghana's prepaid electricity system means residents must constantly top up their meters, with heavy users potentially spending hundreds of cedis weekly. While water remains relatively affordable, internet service in Ghana is surprisingly expensive, creating an additional financial burden for digital nomads or those working remotely.

Education presents the most substantial financial consideration for families relocating with children. International schools, which offer quality education with good facilities and motivated teachers, typically charge a minimum of 3,000 cedis monthly per child.

Transportation represents another major expense category. Whether importing a vehicle (which incurs substantial port duties) or purchasing locally, costs can be significant. New vehicles range from $15,000-20,000 for standard models, with luxury brands like Maserati and Bugatti also available for those with deeper pockets. 

The takeaway message is clear: Ghana offers many advantages and opportunities, but affordability isn't necessarily among them. Prospective residents should approach relocation with realistic financial expectations and careful planning. As the podcast concludes, "Ghana is not cheap, but can be very, very expensive" – wisdom worth heeding for anyone contemplating a move to this vibrant West African nation.

Sources: 

Is Ghana Affordable? Our 2025 Real-Life Cost of Living as American Expats Explained

FURNITURE AND HOME DECOR SHOPPING WI

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Episode Introduction
• 1:43 Why Ghana is Expensive
• 3:15 Shopping Local vs Imported Foods
• 5:22 Utilities, Education and International Schools
• 9:05 Cars and Transportation Costs
• 12:10 Video Resources and Closing Remarks

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

and welcome to this week's edition of Ghana in Focus with myself Kwame, ghanaian broadcaster, writer, journalist, podcaster and entrepreneur, and in this week's edition of Ghana in Focus. And in this week's edition of Ghana In Focus, ghana is not cheap but expensive. That's the theme for this week's show why Ghana is not cheap but quite expensive. So before we start the podcast, if you like what you hear, please share to your friends, family, social media networks. Please subscribe to Ghana Africa In Focus on YouTube, hit the notification bell, meaning that every time we upload a new podcast, youtube will notify you of this. Also, subscribe to Ghana African Fix on Spotify. Again, click the follow button and you'll be notified by Spotify every time we upload a new podcast. Alright, and if you want to help contribute to the show to keep bringing you some great content from Ghana and from Africa, then you can donate as free. If it does a month, you don't have to put it in all the time. You can just do a one-off payment or you can do a monthly payment whenever you want to do so and leave it there for as long as you like. So just look on the website, go on the Ghana African Focus website and then click on the donate button or you can click on the donate button in the front of the show and, like I said, you can donate as little as three US dollars per month. All right, so let's get into this podcast why Ghana is not cheap but expensive. So I have not done an up-to-date um podcast on, basically, the cost of living in Ghana and how things are priced, so it's think I think it's about time to do so now. Uh, appropriate time given the fact that you know, ghana is still in the throngs of a cost of living crisis and obviously, as you know, ghana has elected a new president in John John Mahama, who has been in power for about four months. All right, so, like I said in the previous podcast, because Ghana imports virtually everything, yeah, and also because of the taxes that were put in place by the previous government, although this current government has got rid of about three of the new taxes. So the government's got rid of the betting tax, the controversial e-levy, and also the what do you call it? The COVID tax and also the emissions tax, but despite that, things are still quite expensive in Ghana and I'll come into that in a minute. So you know, because of the cost of living crisis. Things have become very, very expensive in Ghana, like I said, despite some of these nuisance taxes being removed by this new government in the first budget that was had in April.

Speaker 1: 3:10

And so if you look at things like transportation, groceries, particularly particularly for to eat the food that you used to, you know, back in America or UK or Australia or Canada, you have to you pay double than what you pay here. In actual fact, I've done a comparison of foods. You know that we buy in the UK and you know what is paid for in Ghana. So things like cereals, you know, sauces, mayonnaise, chocolate, crisps, pringles, etc. You pay double in Ghana because the import duty is still and some of these taxes you're going to pay double in Ghana than what you pay in the UK, for example. So you need to watch out for that.

Speaker 1: 4:04

If you want to, you know eat. You know the British food or the American food or what have you Cheese, milk, sausages, burgers, you know cereals those kind of things are very expensive in Ghana. However, if you shop local and what I mean by that? If you don't shop at these hypermarkets or supermarkets that in Nassau, pongopolo, valk, particular Accra then if you shop at the local food sellers, so those people or those women that sell pineapples or fruits, different fruits and vegetables, etc. Right, etc, right then, as compared to a supermarket, then you pay pretty you know, reasonable cheap price for it, but still pretty expensive, but not as expensive, as you know, fruit, vegetables, rice, etc. That you would buy in the hypermarket or supermarket. So, again, it's something to watch out for. If you are wanting to settle in Ghana or and or if you are wanting to stay in Ghana for a period of time, maybe three months, six months or what have you, you know you need to be aware of the cost of good services.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Okay, internet, that's another one. I was going to take a lot of your money because in Ghana, for some reason, our internet uses is very, very expensive as well. Electricity, you know, they've been about 10 or so increases in electricity over the past year, so electricity is becoming very, very expensive in Ghana, particularly if you like the air condition. Yeah, because air conditioning really eats up a lot of your units. So in Ghana, a lot of the um households pay for their electricity in advance. So they buy a, you know, diesel prepaid meter and they buy one of those top-up cars whereby they can top up their electricity from the Ghana Logistic Company board and just walk into any of their kiosks and buy a you know. Get you know, buy some units so you can buy 100 cities a day or 200 cities or 500 cities for you to use. So if you do use a lot of electricity, if you do like their condition and if you do work from home remotely, then obviously you will use a lot of electricity. So again, be mindful of the prices of electricity. Water is pretty reasonable in Ghana. It's not too expensive in Ghana Now if you've got children, like I mentioned on the podcast years ago.

Speaker 1: 6:47

But if you've got children, educating them in Ghana is not cheap, particularly if you want to send your child to an international school in the most intensive schools in Ghana. Pay a minimum 3,000 cities a month. Now divide that by put it into a dollar and you will get how much you need to pay a term in US dollars for your child and in pounds. Divide 3,000 cities by 17 to a pound 17 cities to a pound as opposed to 20 at the beginning of the month. So the city has appreciated recently, against the major trading currencies to be the UK pound sterling, the US dollar and the euro the city has appreciated against these major currencies. So if you divide 3,000 cities a term which is just the average school fees in Ghana, but an international school divided by 17, to get your pounds, and that gives an idea roughly of how much you know you will spend on your child's education in a typical Ghanaian international school. I wouldn't send my child to a state school because those state schools are probably one with not so great facilities and also teachers who are not that motivated. So you know, if you're coming to settle in Ghana and if you've got young children, then you would definitely need to consider some of these international schools that are in Accra particularly. And these international schools have very, very good, high quality standards of teaching, also got very, very good facilities as well, including internet and Wi-Fi. So you know, I strongly recommend that if you have got children and you bring them to Ghana, then you need to look at seriously, look at sending them to an international school. It's expensive, but international school it's expensive, but you know they'll be very well resourced and very well educated in those international schools.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Again, if you look at the price of cars, you know I did a podcast quite some time ago if it's a ship or to buy. So if you want to ship a car, bear in mind that you know you'll pay a lot of duty at the port, you know. So you can get a lot of cars in ghana. So there's a lot of new cars in ghana. From you know purges, from um rain drivers. From you know uh, total camry, toyota, nissan, toyota rav, um, you know even Toyota Camry, toyota, nissan, toyota RAV, even the Land Cruisers, the Land Ravers, and even, for those of you who are wealthy, filthy bitch, you can get Maserati and Bugatti in Ghana. Yes, indeed, there are shrooms in Ghana, particularly Accra, that will sell Bugatti or Maserati. You can also get Jaguars as well. So you know it's up to you.

Speaker 1: 10:07

But if you want to ship your car, please bear in mind the extensive uh port duties that you'll be expected to pay when bringing in your car from either the US, uk, canada, australia or, mainly, europe, all right. And also, you can also, like I said, you can also buy a car. So these cars are new or new cars. I'm not talking about the second hand cars, these are new cars. So you can get a reasonably priced car for between 15 000 to 20 000 us dollars. So, like I said, divide that by three into a dollar and you can do the math yourself to give you a indication as to how much a new car is priced in, you know, in dollars, all right, so so that's one video I'm going to put down, looking at, basically looking at all those things transportation, eating out if you want to eat out, you know, as opposed to eat local, you pay more for eating that in the restaurant than eating that in a chat bar, internet usage, water, electricity, school fees, etc.

Speaker 1: 11:18

I'm going to leave you a video by tony and ayo. They are an african-american uh couple who, uh my or who left the united states five years ago and I been in Ghana ever since, and they came to Ghana with their two young children, so they're a family of four, and the video that I will leave you is about how they, as a family of four, how they pay for utilities, groceries, eating out, transportation, school fees, etc. Etc. So that will give you an indication, particularly if you're a family, of how much it can potentially be to live in Ghana over a period of time.

Speaker 1: 12:05

Now the second video that I'll put down is looking at things like um, you know, your um home decor. So you're looking about. You know beddings, you know bed furniture, beds. You know wardrobes, um, then furniture, so sofas, etc. You know office furniture as well, uh, lamp shades, and also sanctuary like zinks and bathrooms, and also, um, uh, kitchens.

Speaker 1: 12:40

So this second video is by a Ghanaian um youtuber called Jasmine Amma and, uh, she had been in Ghana for six years and this is a very interesting video that she does looking at. You know, the cost of home decor in Ghana. So if you are wanting to relocate to Ghana, this video is for you because it tells you, gives you an indication as to prices that you're going to pay, expect to pay, for things like bedsshades, bedding, office furniture, you know, normal furniture for your house, etc. Etc. So these two videos that I'm going to put down, they will give you an up-to-date, current price mechanisms of life in Ghana. So, like I said, from eating out to your groceries, to your food shopping, to school fees, to internet usage, to electricity usage, food to buy in home decor, bedding, kitchen wardrobes, etc. Etc. So hopefully, these two videos that I will put down on the front of the show, by Tony and I and also Jasmine Amma, those two videos hopefully will give you some very useful information as to the current cost of living in Ghana pertain to everyday living in Ghana.

Speaker 1: 14:12

Alright, so you, you know everyday living in Ghana, all right. So, uh, you can subscribe to Tony and Io's um, you know um podcast, or sorry, um, you can subscribe to Tony and Io's um uh YouTube channel. That will be, you know, if you just click on Tony and Io, you should get the details again. Likewise, jasmine Amma. If you want to subscribe to Jasmine Amma's YouTube channel again, just look out for Jasmine Amma and you can look on a lot of the videos that she's done since migrating to Ghana from Australia around about six years ago.

Speaker 1: 14:46

Alright, so that's it for this week's edition of Ghana In Focus, looking about the cost of living in Ghana, why Ghana is not cheap. Ghana is very, very expensive. So you need to be mindful when you come to Ghana on holiday or for a short stay, or even to settle permanently, you need to be aware that Ghana is not cheap, but can be very, very expensive. So hopefully, these two videos will give you a current outlook as to the prices of goods and services and also home decor in Ghana. All right, so for myself, kwame and for all the crew here on Ghana in Focus it's. Thank you very much for listening. Please subscribe to the show, subscribe to both Ghana Africa in Focus on YouTube, subscribe to Ghana Africa in Focus on Spotify and we'll see you next week for some more Ghana Africa in Focus.