The 2017 Global Rule of Law Ranking has projected Ghana as the first country in Africa and 43rd in the world with strict adherence to the rule of law.

According to the 2017 World Justice Project (WJP) Global Rule of Law Ranking, Ghana has witnessed an improvement in its governance the past year.

In the report released by the Washington based organization on Wednesday, Ghana had good scores in all eight criteria measured such as open governance , fundamental human rights, order and security and regulatory enforcement.

South Africa which topped in the 2016 edition of the report was relegated to the second position after Ghana beats them in the 2017 Ranking.

Ghana also improved on the World ranking after it rose one position for overall rule of law performance from 44 in the 2016 WJP Rule of Law Index to 43 out of 113 countries.

WJP has noted the absence of rule of law in any country affects business environments, public works, public participation and conflict resolution.

The top three overall performing countries were Denmark which is followed by Norway at the second position and Finland ranking third.
Afghanistan, Cambodia and Venezuela were the three worst performers globally.

The report also showed a decline in the scores of a majority of the 113 countries surveyed across the world in the areas of human rights, checks on government powers and civil and criminal justice.

Ghana’s scores place it at the number one position out of 18 countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region and the third among 30 lower-middle income countries.