Location: Ghana is situated in West Africa, just above the Equator. The Greenwich Meridian passes through its main industrial city, Tema. It lies between latitude four degrees 45 minutes and 11 degrees 11 minutes North and extends from Longitude one degree 14 minutes east to three degrees 17 minutes west. Ghana shares common boundaries with Togo in the east, Burkina Faso in the north, and Cote d’Ivoire in the West. The Atlantic Ocean is in the south.
Ghana is divided into 16 administrative regions and 244 district assemblies. The Regions are: Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Central, Volta, Ashanti, Northern, Upper East, Upper West, North East, Oti, Savannah, Bono, Ahafo, Western North and Bono East.
Capital: Accra.
Status: Republic. Former British colony. It won independence on March 6, 1957 and became the first country south of the Sahara to be free. She became a Republic on July 1, 1960
Population: About 28.83million (2017).
Area: 238,537 square kilometres.
Climate: Tropical. Temperatures are generally between 21 and 32 degrees Celcius. It is usually breezy and sunny. In the South, there are two rainy seasons, from March to July and from September to October, separated by a short dry season in August and a relatively long dry season from mid-October to March. The north has only one rainy season, that is, from July to September.
It is hot and humid in the southwest, with annual rainfall averaging 2,030mm. The extreme southwest, around Axim, records the heaviest rainfall. The southeast coast is warm and comparatively dry; the north is hot and dry.
Ghana has about 550 kilometres of coastline of sandy beaches.
The vegetation of coastal plains give way to tropical forest at the centre while the north is savannah.
Ethnic groups: Twi and Fanti-speaking Akans (45.3 per cent), Mole-Dagombas (15.2 per cent), Ewes (11.7 per cent) others (27 per cent).
Religion: Christian (71.2 per cent), Muslims (17.6 per cent), traditional religion (5.2 percent) as at 2010.
Languages: English (official). The main local languages are Twi, Fanti, Ewe, Ga and Dagbani.
International Affiliation: Member of the UN, Commonwealth, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), others.
Workforce: Basically an agricultural country. Agriculture accounts for about 45 percent of Gross Domestic Product and employs about 60 percent of labour force.
Government: Parliamentary democracy. The Constitution of the Fourth Republic was approved at a referendum held on 28th April 1992 and came into force on 7th January 1993. Single chamber of 200 Parliamentary members.
Education: Ghana operates a 12-year pre-university education – six years of primary and three years each of Junior High School and three years of Senior High School. Ghana has 12 public Universities and other private universities, 10 Polytechnics and 22 Technical Institutions.
Economy: Main exports are gold, cocoa, timber, bauxite, manganese, diamonds which are called traditional exports, and horticultural products, handicraft, processed food and manufactured goods called non-traditional exports.
Currency: Ghana Cedi / Pesewa. (100 Pesewas = One Ghan cedi). Flexible exchange rate.