Is Block Making Business Profitable in Ghana? Cost per Block in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale

Short answer: yes, block making is profitable in Ghana when the blocks are made by machine and you get many blocks from each bag of cement. With the recipe of one of our customers in Ghana, a machine-made 6-inch block costs about GH₵4.15–4.78 to make and sells for GH₵7–10.5, a margin of about 35–56% depending on the city. A yard with a BLOCKMASTER 8 or CBM 20 running at full capacity and selling its full output makes about US$45,000–66,000 a month at the low end of the price range.

This guide uses the same method as our general guide is a block making business profitable: a real production recipe, local prices for cement, sand, chippings, labour and diesel, and a cautious calculation you can repeat with your own prices. Here we go city by city: Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale.

Download the presentation (PDF, 5 pages): the same calculation as a presentation with the BLOCKMASTER 4, 8 and 10, to print or share.

The recipe: 62.5 blocks from one bag of cement

One of our customers in Ghana made 7,500 hollow blocks of 400×200×150 mm with 30 mm shells, using:

• 120 bags of cement (50 kg)
• 3 trucks of sand, 18.5 m³ each (55.5 m³)
• 2 trucks of chippings, 18.5 m³ each (37 m³)

That is 62.5 blocks per bag, about 0.8 kg of cement per block. Hand-moulded sandcrete blocks need much more cement per block: they are tamped by hand, not vibrated and pressed. The machine compacts the mix, so the same bag makes far more blocks. The 400×200×150 mm block sells at the same price as the usual 6-inch block, which in Ghana is often 450×225×150 mm.

Our assumptions

• A BLOCKMASTER 4 or CBM 12 with a crew of 8 (operator, mixer, pallets, stacking), making 5,000 6-inch blocks a day.
• The machine runs at full capacity, six days a week, 26 days a month, and the yard sells its full output.
• A generator burning about 45 litres of diesel a day.
• 6% added for water, curing, maintenance, about 3% breakage and small costs.
• Monthly profit is cautious: it uses the low end of the selling price range, 5% material waste, 30% higher pay for skilled operators, 10% other costs and about US$1,500 a month of fixed costs (manager, security, rent, maintenance).
• GH₵11.63 to the US dollar. Prices are what we found at the time of writing; they change, so check yours.

Cost per 6-inch block in four cities

City	Cement (50 kg)	Sand per m³	Chippings / quarry dust per m³	Labour per day	Diesel per litre	Cost per block
Accra	GH₵120	GH₵150	GH₵230	GH₵110	GH₵18.5	≈GH₵4.78
Kumasi	GH₵118	GH₵105	GH₵190	GH₵90	GH₵18.5	≈GH₵4.15
Takoradi	GH₵120	GH₵130	GH₵220	GH₵100	GH₵18.5	≈GH₵4.55
Tamale	GH₵130	GH₵80	GH₵280	GH₵75	GH₵18.5	≈GH₵4.60

Cement is about 40% of the cost of a block and sand and chippings together about 50%. Labour and diesel add only about GH₵0.30–0.35 per block at 5,000 blocks a day. Cement includes the GH₵12 a bag levy that runs until the end of the year; if it is not extended, each block becomes about GH₵0.20 cheaper.

Selling price and profit per block

City	Selling price (6-inch)	Profit per block	Margin	Profit per month, BLOCKMASTER 4 (5,000 a day)
Accra	GH₵7.50–9.00	GH₵2.72–4.22	36–47%	GH₵276,000 (≈US$23,700)
Kumasi	GH₵7.00–9.00	GH₵2.85–4.85	41–54%	GH₵301,000 (≈US$25,900)
Takoradi	GH₵7.00–9.00	GH₵2.45–4.45	35–49%	GH₵243,000 (≈US$20,900)
Tamale	GH₵8.00–10.50	GH₵3.40–5.90	42–56%	GH₵368,000 (≈US$31,600)

Monthly figures are cautious: they use the low end of the price range and the extra costs listed in our assumptions.

Accra

The largest market, and the most competitive. Machine-made, quarry-dust blocks sell for about GH₵7.5–9 at the yard, and many sellers include free delivery for orders of a few hundred blocks, so price your delivery truck into the business. A double-axle load of sand costs about GH₵2,800 and 3/8-inch chippings about GH₵230 per m³. Kasoa, Tema and the new estates around Accra are where most of the building is.

Kumasi

Sand is cheaper than in Accra and labour costs less, so the cost per block is the lowest of the four cities. Factory blocks sell for about GH₵8–9 in local listings. The Green City housing project near Kumasi, with more than 1,000 homes, adds demand on top of private building.

Takoradi

We found fewer published prices for Sekondi-Takoradi than for Accra and Kumasi, so the figures here are estimates based on the other cities. The port, oil and gas activity and steady private building keep demand for blocks up; check local sand and chippings prices before you decide on the site.

Tamale

Sand and labour are cheap, but cement and chippings travel a long way, so they cost more. Blocks also sell for more, about GH₵8–10.5. The grid in the north is less reliable, so a generator is a must. Our Tamale figures are estimates: we found few dated prices.

Profit by machine size: 5,000, 10,000 or 12,000 blocks a day

With a bigger machine, labour and diesel are spread over more blocks. Monthly profit on 6-inch blocks, where each machine runs at full capacity and the yard sells its full output, at the low end of the price range, 26 working days a month, with the same cautious costs and fixed costs of about US$1,500, 2,500 and 3,000 a month:

City	BLOCKMASTER 4 / CBM 12 (5,000 a day)	BLOCKMASTER 8 / CBM 20 (10,000 a day)	CBM 25 (12,000 a day)
Accra	GH₵276,000 (≈US$23,700)	GH₵588,000 (≈US$50,600)	GH₵710,000 (≈US$61,100)
Kumasi	GH₵301,000 (≈US$25,900)	GH₵635,000 (≈US$54,600)	GH₵767,000 (≈US$66,000)
Takoradi	GH₵243,000 (≈US$20,900)	GH₵522,000 (≈US$44,800)	GH₵630,000 (≈US$54,200)
Tamale	GH₵368,000 (≈US$31,600)	GH₵766,000 (≈US$65,900)	GH₵924,000 (≈US$79,500)

We assume a crew of 8, 11 and 14 people and about 45, 70 and 70 litres of diesel a day; our 10,000 and 12,000-block machines burn about the same diesel. These are cautious figures: the low end of the price range and cautious costs.

30 mm or 25 mm shells?

Some block makers use 25 mm shells. A 6-inch block then needs about 14% less concrete, so you get about 73 blocks per bag instead of 62.5:

City	Cost per block, 30 mm shells	Cost per block, 25 mm shells	Margin, 25 mm shells
Accra	≈GH₵4.78	≈GH₵4.15	45–54%
Kumasi	≈GH₵4.15	≈GH₵3.60	49–60%
Takoradi	≈GH₵4.55	≈GH₵3.95	44–56%
Tamale	≈GH₵4.60	≈GH₵3.99	50–62%

Thinner shells also mean a weaker block, so only use them if your blocks still pass the strength test below and your buyers accept them.

Quality: the Ghana standard

The Ghana Standards Authority standard for sandcrete and concrete blocks (GS 297) sets three strength classes: 4.0, 3.0 and 2.5 N/mm². The Ghana Building Code asks for at least 2.75 N/mm² for load-bearing walls in one and two-storey houses. Studies in Kumasi, Cape Coast and Sekondi-Takoradi found many hand-moulded market blocks below these values. Have a few blocks from each new mix tested at a materials laboratory and keep the results: contractors and estate developers increasingly ask for them, and tested blocks sell at the top of the price range.

Demand: who buys the blocks?

• The government puts the housing deficit at about 1.8 million homes, with the greatest pressure in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi.
• The District Housing Scheme has GH₵500 million in the budget, and a revolving National Housing Fund of GH₵3 billion was launched this year.
• Estate projects under way include Saglemi in Accra (1,500 homes) and Green City near Kumasi (more than 1,000 homes).
• Cement sales were lower this year than last, so competition between block makers is tougher. Uniform, tested blocks and reliable delivery are how a machine-made yard wins customers.

Electricity or diesel?

Non-residential customers pay about GH₵2.24 per kWh above 300 kWh a month, and special-load customers about GH₵2.40. There is no load-shedding timetable at present, but there were nationwide outages in July and August and planned maintenance cuts in October, and losses on the northern grid are high. A grid connection is cheaper to run, but plan for a generator as backup; our cost table assumes diesel only.

Which machine for which volume?

• About 5,000 6-inch blocks a day: BLOCKMASTER 4 or CBM 12. The egg-laying MBM4 works without pallets.
• About 10,000 a day: BLOCKMASTER 8 or CBM 20. We have shipped a CBM 20 to Ghana.
• About 12,000 a day and paving stones: CBM 25, or the fully automatic CBM 25 PRO.

See our block making machines in Ghana page for the models and projects in Ghana. To plan your daily output, see block machine capacity calculation; for mix design, see concrete block mix proportions.

What this calculation does not include

• Land, rent, buildings and a curing area.
• Delivery trucks and fuel for delivery.
• Depreciation, taxes, permits and loan repayments.
• Unsold stock and slow months in the rainy season.

Sources for the prices

• Cement: Channel One News, Yen.com.gh, Ghanamma, accra.cool.
• Blocks, sand and chippings: Yen.com.gh, Grace Construction GH, ExactoCost, accra.cool, Jiji listings.
• Labour: ExactoCost. Diesel: National Petroleum Authority pump prices via Citi Newsroom and MyJoyOnline.
• Standard: Ghana Standards Authority (GS 297), Ghana Building Code. Housing: Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources, Ghana News Agency, Presidency. Electricity: PURC.
• Prices for Takoradi and Tamale come from fewer sources than Accra and Kumasi; treat them as estimates.

Frequently asked questions

How much profit per block in Ghana?

With machine-made 6-inch blocks: about GH₵2.72–4.22 in Accra, GH₵2.85–4.85 in Kumasi, GH₵2.45–4.45 in Takoradi and GH₵3.40–5.90 in Tamale, using the prices in this guide.

How many blocks from one bag of cement?

Hand-moulded sandcrete blocks give far fewer, because the mix is tamped by hand. Machine-made: one of our customers in Ghana made 62.5 blocks of 400×200×150 mm per bag with sand and chippings, and about 73 with 25 mm shells.

Which city is best for a block business?

Kumasi has the lowest cost per block, Accra the biggest market, and Tamale the highest selling prices. In Takoradi, check local aggregate prices first. In every city, a steady supply of quarry dust or chippings and a delivery truck matter as much as the machine.

Which machine should I start with?

Most new yards start with a semi-automatic machine making about 5,000 6-inch blocks a day, such as the BLOCKMASTER 4 or CBM 12, and add a larger machine when sales grow.

Does İBAR MAKİNA install the machine in Ghana?

Yes. On-site installation and operator training are included in the price, machines carry a 2-year warranty and spare parts are shipped from stock on the same day.

Send us your city, the blocks you want to make and your target daily output on WhatsApp, and we will recommend a machine and run these numbers with your local prices.