Helping Ghana's private sector to ripen
Related pages: Ghana
country profile | Business
Linkages Challenge Fund | Related case study:
Helping
Ghana's private sector to bloom
 If
you've ever bought chopped fresh pineapple from a supermarket in the UK, there's
a small chance that it was grown in Ghana.
Pineapples are one of Ghana's
champion new exports, one of the successful alternatives to the timber, gold and
cocoa markets which have traditionally provided most of Ghana's income.
To help Ghanaians capitalise on these new opportunities, DFID is working with
the Government of Ghana and other donors to improve the climate for business and
growth.
In the early 1980s, Ghana exported 2,000 tonnes of pineapples a year to
Europe. In 2005, that figure is holding steady at over 50,000 tonnes, with thousands of people now
earning their living in the pineapple business.
Creating a climate for growth
Getting growing
 Meet
Sammy Ankoma. He's one of the farmers whose lives have been
revolutionised by farming pineapples. Sammy started out as a subsistence farmer,
but with support from exporters he has hugely improved his family's quality of
life:
'I have built a lovely house and was the first farmer of the village to buy a
car. In the village you can see that those working with the exporters are all
living in decent houses and sending their children to school.'
Each family owns a small plot of land and sells pineapples at an agreed price
to the exporter. The exporter in turn supplies the farmers with finance,
training, fertiliser and even materials for building new homes.
Sammy has come a long way, but he's eager to do more.
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Challenging the competition
 But the success of Ghana's 'native' pineapple
has been strongly challenged by a new variety.
The MD2 variety is now favoured by supermarkets for
its sweeter flavour and high fibre content and has led to less demand for Ghanaian pineapples.
To manage this, the Ghanaian government launched a $2m programme in 2004 to import
and test the new variety, for eventual adoption by Ghana's pineapple industry.
But farmers like Sammy are worried about the cost of replacing all their
pineapple plants. And building a processing facility to efficiently exploit the
indigenous pineapple variety - which is good for selling chopped fresh in tubs
or in fruit salad - is even more expensive.
He could apply for a loan, but interest rates in Ghana are too high, currently
between 24-29%. What his business really needs is advice and investment.
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Creating a climate for growth
 To create an investor-friendly climate, Ghana needs reform of the financial
sector, so that finance is cheaper and more accessible to small and medium-sized
businesses.
So, DFID has helped the Government of Ghana to launch a Private Sector
Development Strategy and Action Plan for 2004-2008, setting out clear processes and targets to
improve the environment for business.
The plan incorporates all factors that affect the ease of doing business. For
a fruit exporter like Ghana Fresh Produce, that could mean, for example, less red tape getting
in the way of setting up a processing plant, better roads for transport to the
airport and better cold-storage facilities available at the airport itself.
If these plans succeed, there will be more opportunities for exporters and growers like
Sammy to compete with producers from other countries.
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