Business
While Economists Waver, Technology Entrepreneurs on the Rise in Ghana
While ministers struggle to prop up the cedi, a new wave of industrialists and tech entrepreneurs are providing an economic jump start of their own. Following the cedi’s rapid depreciation over the past year, the government has been under pressure to rescue the currency.
In January, some members of parliament called for the sacking of Bank of Ghana governor Henry Kofi Wampah who, together with finance minister Seth Terkper, then took to issuing new measures to get the cedi back on track. Also part of the government’s economy-boosting agenda is a renewed effort to encourage locally made goods.
Crucial to this move is the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI). One member of the association is Comfort Aniagyei, founder and managing director of pro- motion and marketing company Ghana-Made. In December 2013, GhanaMade received a special recognition award from the AGI for its efforts in championing the cause of local production.
Alongside running her own company, Aniagyei is also director of finance for the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. As the government moves to offer more considered support to manufacturers, as explained by trade and industry minister Haruna Iddrisu, it will have to consider the country’s erratic power supply.
In February, Ghana Grid Company embarked on a load-shedding program after system failures occurred at the Volta River Authority’s thermal plant. The exercise came a year after the country suffered chronic power outages over a period of six months. In January, the government gave assurances that there would be no load-shedding this year.
The use of generators will also prove pricey following the government’s removal of fuel subsidies in June and an increase in utility prices in October 2013. The completion of the country’s gas processing plant was expected to ease power problems, but it has been delayed.
Tullow Oil, one of the main partners at the Jubilee oil field, has resorted to flaring gas. Ghana National Gas Company chief executive George Sipa-Adjah Yankey said in January that gas should come online by May. In the same month, however, energy minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah said it was unlikely the oft-shifted deadline would be met.
