A News Commentary by the Upper West Regional Co-ordinating Council.
WA — Some statistics carry a significance that far exceeds their numerical value. The release of the 2026 Regional Entrepreneurship Freedom Index (REF Index) by the Africa Centre for Entrepreneurship and Youth Empowerment (ACEYE), in partnership with the Atlas Network, represents one such moment for the Upper West Region, which has risen to 6th position out of Ghana’s sixteen regions, a marked improvement from its 13th-place standing in the 2024 edition.
For a Region previously classified among the country’s most “Repressed” business environments, this advancement is a notable achievement. It reflects a sustained programme of deliberate reform that is now manifesting in the lived experience of traders, artisans, agro-processors, and young entrepreneurs building enterprises across Wa, Nadowli, Lawra, Jirapa, Lambussie, and the wider Region.
THE DATA UNDERPINNING THE PROGRESS
The Region’s index score rose from 4.20 in 2024 to 5.55 in 2026, moving it out of the “Repressed” category and into the “Mostly Unfree” classification. While this remains a technical designation, it signifies substantive and measurable progress. The REF Index stands as Ghana’s first regional-level entrepreneurship freedom study, drawing on data gathered from 3,200 entrepreneurs across the country’s regional capitals and corroborated through 200 in-depth interviews conducted by 32 trained enumerators, assessed against fourteen distinct indicators spanning Trade Freedom, Fiscal Freedom, Property Rights, Regulation, Financial Freedom, and Technological Freedom.
The Region recorded its strongest performance in Trade Freedom, with a score of 5.83, followed closely by Freedom from Government (5.66) and Labour Freedom (5.64), indicating that entrepreneurs are increasingly able to trade, operate, and employ with reduced friction. Technological Freedom (5.24) and Financial Freedom (5.38) registered the lowest scores, underscoring that the cost of technology, limited internet connectivity, and constrained access to credit remain the Region’s most pressing challenges.
BEYOND A RANKING
This achievement should not be interpreted merely as a favourable position on a scoreboard. ACEYE has consistently emphasised that the REF Index is intended as a policy instrument, designed to inform evidence-based reform, highlight both opportunities and obstacles, and provide regional and district institutions with a roadmap for action rather than a static report card. The Upper West Regional Co-ordinating Council receives these findings in that spirit: not as a conclusion to be celebrated, but as validation of a direction that merits continued investment.
THE PATH FORWARD
ACEYE’s recommendations offer a clear and actionable framework for the Regional Co-ordinating Council, District Assemblies, and partner institutions to pursue:
1. Widening the tax base, to ease the burden currently borne by a relatively small pool of formal businesses;
2. Deepening AfCFTA readiness, by ensuring the Customs and Excise Preventive Service receives periodic training on the African Continental Free Trade Area;
3. Involving entrepreneurs in fiscal decision-making, so that levies and taxes are set with input from local businesses rather than imposed without consultation;
4. Ensuring fairness in support schemes, including Cash Transfer Programmes, so that grants reach genuine beneficiaries through transparent and equitable processes; and
5. Strengthening local anti-corruption safeguards, by supporting District Assemblies to enact and enforce bye-laws that check extortion and bribery within the business environment.
A REGION COMMITTED TO THE WORK
The Region’s climb from 13th to 6th position is the product of sustained collaboration between regional and district institutions, and it reflects growing confidence among Upper West’s entrepreneurs in the systems established to support them. The Upper West Regional Co-ordinating Council reaffirms its commitment to working closely with ACEYE, the Atlas Network, District Assemblies, and the Region’s business community to translate these recommendations into concrete, measurable action.
The movement from “Repressed” to “Mostly Unfree” is progress worth acknowledging. Yet the Council’s focus remains fixed on the next milestone: an Upper West Region in which every entrepreneur — from the shea butter processor in Lambussie to the technology-minded youth of Wa — can access markets, capital, and opportunity on fair and equal terms. This is the standard by which future progress will be measured, and it is the standard to which the Council remains firmly committed.
Issued by the Public Relations Unit of the Upper West Regional Co-ordinating Council
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