Ghana: A Developing Country….or?

The obvious answer to this question is “yes”. Ghana is a developing country by all means. A very fast developing country in fact.
Which in many ways challenge the way people think of “Developing Countries”. Many developing countries fail to develop all together, why the use of the word “developing” (though politically correct) is somewhat misleading.

A more suitable question to ask would be something along the lines of: Is Ghana a hopelessly lost economically stagnant country, caught in a poverty trap with no or few good prospects for the future? Absolutely not.

In many ways Ghana reminds me more of Central America ( e.g. Honduras or Nicaragua) than of Sierra Leone, which I have previously visited. Granted, Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries on the earth, but the difference is still striking and serves as an important reminder that box-categorizing sub-Saharan Africa as “Poor” is wildly misleading. Africa has more than 50 countries. Putting them all into the same category is not only very simplistic, but also rarely useful when talking about development.

So back to Ghana:
All the roads are paved. There are streetlights almost everywhere. Reliable electricity. Cell phone connectivity is impressive. EVERYONE has a cell phone, and there are 4 or 5 major companies competing for customers. Recently “Mobile Banking” made it to Ghana. Though it is not yet used on a wide basis, the concept is still interesting. For more on that you’ll have to wait on my next post, which (for sure) will be about mobile banking.

I have still only seen few parts of the country, (have not yet been to the north, which is suppose to be the “poor” part) but so far things seem to be moving at insane speed. There are building projects going on all over Ghana. Hotels, Malls, Office Centres. Everything. While most of the billboards next to the central roads leading from my university into Accra advertise for cheap cell phone deals, some advertise for everything from Birkenstock Sandals(which are now sold at the newly built Accra Mall), to Ford Escape. This indicates that the middle class has now grown big enough to demand these things.

It is however also a fact that there is a great inequality in Ghana. If you are rich you are often superrich and being poor is still not happy times, yet literacy rates for 15-24 years olds are still above 75% (in 2005 – probably higher now) and primary school enrollment is free and is attended by more than 90% of both genders.

All this is positive news and definitely great for the country. In general I also feel a very positive vibe from people down here.
The mood is generally high, people are really friendly and helpful and I feel very safe and secure walking around most places.

The other night we spoke to a Ghanaian woman who started her own company helping NGO’s carry out there projects. She told us about a school where the kids sat on benches, and her suggestion was to find chairs with backrests to the children so they could sit better.
This in many ways hit me as good news. I mean, ok – its sad that the children are sitting a benches. But if that’s their biggest problem, then I’d say they’re doing rather well.

But yeah, I guess the situation looks somewhat different when I make it to the rural areas in the north. I’ll fill you in on that when I get there.

Currently planning a trip to Togo for the coming weekend. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a Visa from the border. My biggest task at the moment is to find someone who speaks French who I can bring along – cause my French is basically non-existent.