Over the past academic year, the economic impact of spending by Ghanaian students studying in the United States reached $129 million, data from the 2019 Open Doors report has revealed.

Keeping in trend with a long standing preference for seeking education abroad, Ghana featured in the list of top African countries studying in the US over the past year.

The entire budgetary allocation for education in Ghana for 2019 came in at $2 billion (12 billion cedis), which is below the minimum level recommended for developing countries by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Within Ghana’s budgetary allocation, a total of 12bn Ghana cedis went to education; a 39% increment from the 9bn Ghana cedis allocation in 2018.

Ghanaian students studying in the US crossed the 3,600 mark in the last academic year.

The 2019 Open Doors Report on international education has shown an overall 13.9% increase over 2018 in the number of Ghanaian students attending universities and colleges in the United States, from 3,213 to 3,661.

This brings Ghana into second place in Sub-Saharan Africa, a spot previously held by Kenya. The number one spot is held by Nigeria, with 13,423 students.

Over half of the Ghanaian students in the United States are studying at the graduate level and this number increased by 21.3% over last year, from 1,534 up to 1,860, tipping Ghana into an enviable bracket of top 25 countries sending graduate students to the United States.

In comparison, there are 2,210 US students currently studying in Ghana.

Open Doors report on International Educational Exchange is a comprehensive information resource on international students and U.S. students studying abroad. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and is published by IIE.