The construction sector of Ghana has seen a huge expansion at the beginning of the third quarter of the year.
According to the Bank of Ghana, construction sector activities in the construction sub-sector, measured by the volume of cement sales increased to 351,608.35 tonnes in July 2020 compared with 248,808.74 tonnes recorded a year ago.
The expansion represents a year-on-year growth of 41.3 percent.
This is according to the real sector development report for September released by the Bank of Ghana.
On a month-on-month basis, total cement sales picked up marginally by 3.4 percent in July 2020 compared with the 340,116.45 tonnes recorded in June.
The central bank attributed the improvement in total cement sales to an uptick in construction activities during the review period.
However, cement sales for the first seven months of 2020 dropped to 2,054,321.92 tonnes from 2,111,796.37 tonnes recorded during the same period in 2019. This represents a decline of 2.7 percent.
Manufacturing Activities
Activities in the manufacturing sub-sector, gauged by the collection of direct taxes and private sector workers’ contributions to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Pension Scheme (Tier-1), however, recorded mixed performance in July 2020.
According to the Bank of Ghana, total direct taxes collected increased to GH¢1,486.71 million in July 2020, compared with GH¢1,249.16 million recorded in a similar period in 2019.
This represents a year-on-year increase of 19.0 percent.
Cumulatively, total Direct Taxes collected over the first seven months of 2020 went up by 4.5 percent to GH¢10,615.74 million, relative to GH¢ 10,157.27 million for the same period in 2019.
In terms of contributions of the various sub-tax categories, Corporate tax accounted for 44.6 percent, Income tax (PAYE and self-employed) accounted for 44.2 percent, while “Other Tax Sources” contributed 11.2 percent.
Total private-sector workers’ contribution to the SSNIT Pension Scheme (Tier-1), which is the second measure of the manufacturing sector activities declined marginally by 2.8 percent in year-on-year terms but dipped by 11.6 percent on a month-on-month basis in July 2020.
However, for the first seven months of 2020, the contribution grew by 13.6 percent to GH¢1,339.24 million, relative to GH¢1,178.70 million recorded in the same period in 2019.
Industrial Consumption of Electricity
Industrial consumption of electricity also went up significantly as firms and businesses returned to full operations post-lockdown.
Activities within the productive sectors of the economy, measured by Industrial consumption of electricity went up by 27.5 percent during the period under review, compared with a similar period in 2019.
The report shows that industries consumed 263.98 gigawatts of power in July 2020, as against 207.00 gigawatts recorded for the corresponding period in 2019”.
Also, industrial consumption of electricity increased by 13.4 percent on a month-on-month basis, rising from the 232.79 gigawatts utilized in the preceding month.
Cumulatively, electricity consumed by industries within the first seven months of 2020 increased marginally by 3.5 percent to 1,616.70 gigawatts from 1,561.48 gigawatts recorded during the same period in 2019.
The improvement in power consumption by industries, according to the Bank of Ghana, was due mainly to a rebound in industrial activity by manufacturing companies after the partial lockdown was lifted on April 20, 2020.
