Manufacturing in Ghana

Industry in Ghana accounts for about 24.5% of total GDP. However, Ghana's industrial production is rising at a 7.8% rate, giving it the 38th fastest growing industrial production in the world due to government industrialization policies.

Ghana's most important manufacturing industries include electronics manufacturing, car manufacturing, electric car manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, light manufacturing, aluminum smelting, food processing, cement, and small commercial ship building. A relatively small glass-making industry has also developed due to the high-quality sand available from the Tarkwa mining area. The foreign capital has increased in recent years. Most products are for local consumption and exportation.

Other industries include the production of food and beverages, textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and the processing of metals and wood products.

History

In 1957, after Ghana gained independence, the Nkrumah government launched an industrialization drive that increased manufacturing's share of GDP from 10 percent in 1960 to 14 percent in 1970. This expansion resulted in the creation of a relatively wide range of industrial enterprises, the largest including the Volta Aluminum Company (Valco) smelter, saw mills and timber processing plants, cocoa processing plants, breweries, cement manufacturing, oil refining, textile manufacturing operations, and vehicle assembly plants. Many of these enterprises, however, survived only through protection. The overvalued cedi, shortages of hard-currency for raw materials and spare parts, and poor management in the state sector led to stagnation from 1970 to 1977 and then to a decline from 1977 to 1982.