Ghana gov’t ranked Africa’s 3rd ‘most transparent’

Ghana’s government is the third most transparent and open in Africa, according to a global ranking on public access to official data.

The ranking was released on Tuesday, January 20 by World Wide Web Foundation.

Eighty-six countries were sampled on how information within officialdom is made easily accessible to citizens.

A report released after the ranking says, “there is still a long way to go to put the power of data in the hands of citizens.”

“Core data on how governments are spending our money and how public services are performing remains inaccessible or paywalled in most countries. Information critical to fight corruption and promote fair competition, such as company registers, public sector contracts, and land titles, is even harder to get.”

Ghana ranked joint-third with Rwanda in Africa. Only South Africa and Tunisia ranked higher.

But Ghana is 46th on the global rankings with United Kingdom ranked 1st followed by US, Sweden, France and New Zealand in that order.

Ghana is, however, listed as one of the capacity-constrained countries. This means access to information is challenged in one way or the other by limited government, civil society or private sector capacity, limits on affordable widespread internet access and weaknesses in digital data collection and management.