﻿The rise Ghana as an African superpower Ghana, the land of gold, kente clothing
and cocoa beans. Talk to people about Ghana and they might ask “ where’s that” well
Ghana is pretty much geographically at the very centre of the world. Found on africa’s west coast,
Ghana sits at a strategic position both economically and geographically. Ask what time
it is in Ghana and the answer is pretty simple as it’s exactly the same as Greenwich Mean Time.
Ghana is one of a handful of countries vying for the title of “ closest to the equator”
so you aren’t likely to find many climates as tropical as this one.
In fact, Ghana only really has two seasons one wet and one dry. Ghana’s port city, Accra,
is the commercial hub of the country, its also ghana’s most populated city and the seat of its
government. Ghana’s history includes myriad tales that come together to explain how the country has
gotten to where it is today. The area now known as Ghana has seen battles with many
African countries, and was many African countries and was colonized by European nations over the
last 2000 years. In 1957, Ghana became the first self governing country on the African continent,
under president Kwame Krumah. Today, Ghana’s president is Nana Akufo Addo and the country
continues to be a strong force in the economy and development of Africa. Ghana is also an affordable
location to visit since a dollar will get you 5.78 cedis and the cost of living is one fifth
of what it is in north America. The population of Ghana live in a cosmopolitan metropolis,
and the government recognizes a host of indigenous languages as national languages. Two of the most
widespread of these are the Twi language of the southern and central regions and the southern
and Dagbani languages of the Dagomba people more commonly spoken by people in areas to the north.
Today most Ghanaians identify as Christian. However, the native religion of the influential
Ashanti empire was a form of this faith tradition are still active today and are a
big part of Ghanaian culture and they’re combined with Christian traditions too. The ashanti empire
was influential in shaping the culture of modern Ghana and fashion is no exception.
Kente cloth the fabric worn by ashanti is still a point of national pride. Now let’s dive into
the main issue here how exactly Ghana fostered economic growth in such a quick spell of time
economist still have their heads spinning. Two years ago Ghana was referred to as the
world’s fastest growing economy with terms such as skyrocketing being used to describe its growth.
This change has occurred in only 3 decades and for any country with a history of ups and downs
this is an exceptional achievement. This was largely made possible due to good governance
and sustainable development seem to have done the trick.
The government has always set its focus on Ghana’s economy ever since they gained independence. By
the late 1900s, the success of Ghana’s cocoa crops brought over from the equatorial guinea
seemed to be securing the country’s status as an up and coming economy to be reckoned with. But,
all too soon the drop in the price of cocoa meant that the booming economy started to slow down.
Although Ghana was also a big exporter of gold and had wealth of natural resources,
the country’s heavy reliance on cocoa exports saw the dip in Ghana’s economy taking a toll on all
aspects of life for Ghanaians. The country faced significant challenges and ghana’s economy was far
from being the fastest growing economy in Africa. Good governance began with government officials
upping their commitment to getting better at governance. This meant taking note of what
the country really needed and making decisions informed by Ghana’s past,
present and future. And this good governance brought about something remarkable in the 1990s.
Ghana’s economy was being strengthened and not by some new commodity the country could sell.
The strength came from a more structured and equitable system of governance the new
government transparent democracy. The government looked to strengthen society and industry
through economic reform. By the mid 1990s, Ghana was once again experiencing rapid economic growth.
Thanks to good governance put forward in policies and plans looking to improve the quality of life
for Ghanaians. These gains were boosted in 2007 with the discovery of off shore oil and
ghana’s economy was showing signs bursting at the seams. Ghana has also consistently ranked
in the top three countries in Africa for freedom of speech and press freedom. In the early years of
independence, the country approached reform with the Economic recovery program(ERP). This program
had its focus on urban issues and sidelined the challenges faced by rural communities.
In this way the ERP overlooked the connections between rural and urban communities and how
one community could benefit from improvements in the other. Since the start of Ghana’s independence
the wealth of rural communities lagged well behind that of city dwellers.
Bridging this gap in equality meant bringing better access to jobs and better pay for rural
people. And by 1997 the Ghanaian government had come up with a plan. Good governance had
brought with it some great opportunities to turn paper policies into practical progress in the
form of the village infrastructure project(VIP). Looking to the intensity efforts to reduce poverty
and increase the quality of life across the country. The Ghanaian government launched the VIP.
There was a keen call for community participation even during the planning phases of the project.
The VIP had four main focus areas all aligned to community concern.
Ghana ranks well above other for the amount of rainfall it receives each year. But this
abundance of water was not well distributed geographically and this added to the gap in
equality across the country through the VIP, the importance of managing the country’s water well
was acknowledged. Government invested in and developed infrastructure for water catchments
as well as water conservation activities. Before the implementation of the VIP only 8000
of the 20,000 kilometers of road feeding into rural areas was maintained by the government.
Ghana’s history shows its economy was dependent on agricultural produce and in 1997 nothing much had.
Moving produce and livestock from fields to farms and from farms to market became
a central focus for the Ghanaian government. This was the key to growing Ghana’s economy,
and if the roads are ready, the supply better be steady. But the improvement of roads wouldn’t
just mean transporting. It would mean bumping up production to new heights. This posed a problem,
since there weren’t enough quality post harvest facilities buildings where produce is stored
before being transported to markets. In Ghana to store an up scaled amount of produce before
the VIP the spoilage of harvested crops accounted for a staggering 100% of the cost of harvesting.
The VIP also shed light on great things to come in Ghana things like institutional
strengthening through community empowerment. While institutional strengthening may sound like
a top management task in Ghana it was really all about giving power back to the people.
It started with the redistribution of administrative responsibilities
to 110 district assemblies. Shifting power from national to district level. The DAs were assigned
the highest authority at the local level and were responsible for providing basic education,
public health, environmental protection and sanitization. To do this, the constitution
dedicated 10% of the gross domestic product of the activities of DAs. This was known as
the District Assemblies Common Fund(DACF). And each DA was appointed an agricultural coordinator
from the community to push post harvest infrastructure and other agricultural activities.
This allowed rural communities to settle into managing projects on the ground
that would improve their own livelihoods. With the VIP and other government initiatives well underway
the world could see how good governance got Ghana steering towards sustainable development.
The gains made in Ghana can bring hope to many a challenging situation. But keeping up progress
while protecting national resources can be a tricky balancing act. In 2 years ago, the World
Resources Institute(WRI) showed that Ghana was one of the top ten countries increasingly losing
swathes of its rainforest. Interestingly, the rainforests are being cleared to grow cocoa crops.
Which has again become a major commodity for export in Ghana. And even though Ghana’s economy
has boomed over the past few years to dip again last year which it did. This thorn in the side of
Ghana’s success seems to come from a struggle with sustainability. Yes, Ghana has built the
idea of sustainability in its economic reform programs, but promises on paper don’t always
filter down to the ground except where there is good governance. In the Overseas Development
Institute’s (ODIs) review on Ghana’s agricultural growth making farming environmentally sustainable.
By conserving resources of soil, forest and biodiversity was described as a key challenge.
Working in it’s favour, Ghana made moves toward the UN SOGs before these goals were even completed
in 2015 showing Ghana’s history of committing to sustainability and it stayed true to that history,
having rolled out tons of programs in every sector to address its issues with sustainability.
Emission Capacity Building(ECB) project and multiple projects projects aimed at educating
communities on sustainable forestry and water use. This goes to show that Ghana has the good
governance and sustainable development stride that it needs to get its economy back on track as long
as it sticks to sustainable progress. Thanks for watching this video and if you enjoyed it please
leave a like and also don’t forget to subscribe and become part of our family here at Think Rich
Africa and hit that notification bell so as not to miss out on any of our upcoming videos.