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Government and Indigenous Private Enterprise in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

As their countries emerged from colonial status, indigenous private entrepreneurs in tropical Africa turned to their governments for what they regarded as indispensable assistance. African businessmen, hampered by strong expatriate competitors (in many cases dominating their sectors), by foreign-owned banks unwilling to provide them with necessary credits, by their own managerial weakness, and by other severe disabilities, concluded that the broad and generous patronage of the central government was essential to the realisation of their aspirations for greater wealth and economic power.

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Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

Page 12 note 1 The sources for this classification are statements by representatives of business interests, as made in Ghana's National Assembly and reported in the press; see Parliamentary Debates (Accra), 1957–1968, V–XXXVIII, passim, The Ghanaian Times (Accra), 1958–1965, and The Daily Graphic (Accra), 1966–1969. See also SirM'Carthy, Leslie, Report of the Chairman of the Committee on Aid to Ghanaian Businessmen (Accra, 1960, mimeo.).Google Scholar

Page 13 note 1 Letter of 24 June 1958 from Patrick Quaidoo, Minister of Trade and Industries, to M'Carthy, concerning the terms of reference for the committee he was to chair.

Page 13 note 2 Interviews with two former officers of the Ministry of Finance, whose official responsibilities had included contract bids for government projects.

Page 13 note 3 Interview with a former senior officer of the Ghana Harbours and Railways Administration who had had direct responsibility for timber shipments.

Page 13 note 4 Interviews with the managers of five foreign trading companies of varying sizes operating in Ghana during that period.

Page 14 note 1 The Small Loans Scheme of the Industrial Development Corporation, which provided credits to small manufacturing enterprises; the Guarantee Corporation, which mainly helped merchants in need of working capital; and the Mortgage Loan Scheme, which lent for longer-term needs on the basis of property offered as security.

Page 14 note 2 See Industrial Development Corporation: Report and Accounts, 1957–1958 (Accra, n.d.), p. 25, and 12th Annual Report (Accra, n.d.), p. 49; also the Report and Financial Statements by the Accountant General for the Tear ended 30th June 1961 (Accra, 1963), p. 78.

Page 14 note 3 See Report of the Commission… to Enquire into the Kwame Nkrumah Properties (Accra, 1966), p. 31 – confirmed in an interview with a director of the Leventis group of companies in Ghana at the time.

Page 14 note 4 Commission of Enquiry on the Local Purchasing of Cocoa (Accra, 1966), p. 39.

Page 14 note 5 Almond, Gabriel A. and Powell, G. Bingham, Comparative Polities: a developmental approach (Boston, 1966), p. 83.Google Scholar

Page 15 note 1 The most useful source for such biographical data is the Ghana Yearbook (Accra), published annually by the Graphic Corporation.

Page 15 note 2 The loans programmes of the Cocoa Purchasing Company (a subsidiary of the Cocoa Marketing Board), the Industrial Development Corporation, and the Ghana Guarantee Corporation.

Page 15 note 3 See statements by Quaidoo, P., Parliamentary Debates, 1957, VIII, pp. 450–1Google Scholar; K. Gbedemah, ibid. 1959, XIV, p. 290; and Goka, F. K. D., West Africa (London), 27 08 1960, p. 977.Google Scholar Cf. a discussion of entrepreneurial difficulties and the deficiencies of Ghanaian merchants by Garlick, Peter C., African Traders in Kumasi (Legon, 1959), pp. 89, 43, 78, 91, and 114–15.Google Scholar

Page 15 note 4 See Kilby, Peter, African Enterprise: the Nigerian bread industry (Stanford, 1965), pp. 104 and 112Google Scholar; Proehl, Paul O., Foreign Enterprise in Nigeria: laws and policies (Chapel Hill, 1965), pp. 72–3Google Scholar; Africa Research Bulletin: economic, financial, and technical series (Exeter), October 1968, p. 1142; and Amin, Samir, Le Développement du capitalisme en Côte d'Ivoire (Paris, 1967), pp. 107 and 195.Google Scholar

Page 16 note 1 See John D. Esseks, ‘Economic Decolonization in a New African State: Ghana 1957–66’, paper delivered at the 11th annual meeting of the African Studies Association, Los Angeles, October 1968—a shorter version of this study is forthcoming in the Western Political Qyarterly (Salt Lake City).

Page 16 note 2 See ‘A Theoretical Model of Economic Nationalism in New and Developed Countries’ and ‘The Ideology of Economic Policy in the New States’, in Johnson, Harry G. (ed.), Economic Nationalism in Old and New States (Chicago, 1967), pp. 24 and 127.Google Scholar

Page 16 note 3 See the ‘Conclusions’, in Coleman, James S. and Rosberg, Carl G. (eds.), Political Parties and National Integration in Tropical Africa (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966), pp. 687–91.Google Scholar

Page 16 note 4 Truman, David B., The Governmental Process: political interests and public opinion (New York, 1953), pp. 250–1.Google Scholar

Page 17 note l H., Hugh and Smythe, Mabel M., The New Nigerian Elite (Stanford, 1960), pp. 202–6.Google Scholar

Page 17 note 2 See Jahoda, Gustav, ‘The Social Background of a West African Student Population’, in British Journal of Sociology (London), 1955, VI, pp. 73–4Google Scholar; and Margaret Peil, ‘Ghanaian University Students’, ibid. 1965, XVI, pp. 26–7.

Page 17 note 3 1960 Population Census of Ghana, vol. IV, Economic Characteristics of Local Authorities, Regions, and Total Country (Accra, 1964), pp. 538 and 214 for cocoa farmers, and pp. 114–54, 215–18 for persons in manufacturing and crafts. I arrived at the number of Ghanaian employers and self-employed in cocoa farming by subtracting from the ‘total population’ the census figure for ‘farmers and farm managers (cocoa)’ of foreign origin, discounted by 31 per cent. A discount is necessary since the publishsed foreign-origin census data do not include a sub-category ‘employers and self-employed’. I arrived at this by calculating the ratio of the figure for ‘employers and self-employed’ in cocoa for the total population, to the figure for ‘all employed’ in cocoa for the total population. Assuming that the proportion would be roughly similar in the gross foreign-origin segment of cocoa farmers, I discounted the gross foreign-origin figure by the ratio calculated for the total population. My figure for employers and self-employed in manufacturing and crafts was compiled by adding all the relevant sub-categories of employed for ‘total population’, and subtracting the totals for the same sub-categories found for ‘foreign-origin population’, discounted in the manner explained above.

Page 17 note 4 Ibid. pp. 236–7, 220, and 227. This estimate was calculated by the same procedures.

Page 17 note 5 1962 Industrial Census Report, vol. I, Industry (Accra, 1965), pp. 482 and 513.

Page 17 note 6 Gold Coast: Legislative Assembly Debates (Accra), III, 1956–1967, p. 500.

Page 17 note 7 Austin, Dennis, Politics in Ghana: 1946–60 (London, 1964), p. 354.Google Scholar

Page 18 note 1 Interview with the Federation's founder, Mrs Esther Ocloo, Accra, July 1970.

Page 18 note 2 This estimate is based on the figure for all distributive-trade enterprises with four or more paid employees – Statistical Yearbook, 1963 (Accra, 1965), pp. 85–6 – minus my estimate of the number of non-African wholesale and retail working proprietors, calculated from the 1960 census. I assume that almost all the foreign enterprises were owned by single proprietors.

Page 18 note 3 Interview with an officer of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce, Accra, July 1970.

Page 18 note 4 The Ghana Evening News (Accra), March 1957.

Page 19 note 1 Austin, op. cit. pp. 253–62 and 344–8.

Page 19 note 2 Scott, Robert E., Mexican Government in Transition (Urbana, Illinois, 1959), pp. 139–44 and 162–72.Google Scholar

Page 19 note 3 Interviews with various senior civil servants, including a member of the Cabinet's Finance and Development Committee.

Page 19 note 4 Report of the Commission… to Enquire into the Kwame Nkrumah Properties, pp. 30.

Page 20 note 1 Cf. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to the House of Representatives in Lagos in 1964: ‘ It must be obvious that no Nigerian can be content so long as any major sector of the economy is controlled by foreigners. But we are realists and we say so long as there is a dearth of Nigerian capital, so long must there be opportunity for foreign capital in Nigeria. We do not seek the withdrawal of foreign capital from any area of the economy before Nigerian enterprise is able to replace it.’ Cited in Proehl, op. cit. p. 159.

Page 21 note 1 M'Carthy, op. cit. paras. 24 and 28.

Page 21 note 2 Ministry of Trade, ‘Government Statement on Aid to African Business’ (Accra, 1960).Google Scholar

Page 21 note 3 The Ghanaian Times, 10 October 1960.

Page 21 note 4 Interview with Quaidoo, Accra, January 1968, and with three senior officers of the Ministry of Finance during 1957–60.

Page 21 note 5 Esseks, op. cit. pp. 7–8.

Page 22 note 1 Austin, op. cit. pp. 363–95.

Page 22 note 2 National Investment Bank: Report of the Directors for the Year ended 31st December 1965 (Accra, n.d.), p. 8; and an interview with an officer of the Bank, Accra, January 1968.

Page 22 note 3 Report of the Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Affairs of the Ghana Timber Marketing Board and the Ghana Timber Co-operative Union (Accra, 1968), pp. 42–3 and 130–44.

Page 23 note 1 Interviews with former officers of the Lands Department and the Ministry of Finance.

Page 23 note 2 Esseks, op. cit. pp. 11–12 and 16.

Page 25 note 1 Letter of 1 June 1967 to me from Sir Patrick Fitzgerald, Managing Director of the Ghana National Trading Corporation, regarding the 1965 licence allocation; and for the 1967 allocation, an interview with a senior officer of the Ministry of Trade, 1966–9.

Page 25 note 2 Statement by Phillips, J. V. L., Commissioner for Industries, reprinted in The Ghanaiaa Times, 8 02 1969.Google Scholar

Page 25 note 3 1960 Population Census of Ghana, vol. IV, p. 236.

Page 26 note 1 Up to 31 December 1965, only 18 Out of 37 state enterprises for which accounts were available had, in their entire business lives, accumulated more profits than losses. The Budget: 1966–67 (Accra, 1966), p. 65.

Page 26 note 2 West Africa, 3 May 1969, p. 493.

Page 26 note 3 The Association of Ghanaian Businessmen was established in 1966, and the Indigenous Ghanaian Manufacturers' Association in 1968.

Page 26 note 4 Speech by Ankrah, Lieutenant-General J. A., reported in The Evening News (Accra), 3 03 1966.Google Scholar

Page 27 note 1 This Act reduced the deadline for aliens to leave wholesale and retail trade from July 1973 to August 1970, and requires that from July 1971 only Ghanaians can operate enterprises in commercial land transportation, baking, printing, beauty culture, produce brokerage, advertising and publicity, and the manufacture of cement blocks for sale.

Page 27 note 2 The 20 policy goals included lower prices, agricultural development, protection of civil liberties, provision of honest leadership, more jobs, end to tribalism, more social services, industrialisation, national unity, more foreign aid and investment, and African unity. Norman Uphoff, ‘Priorities for Public Policy: how Ghanaians assess their country's future needs’, an unpublished manuscript.

Page 27 note 3 See the summary of the broadcast by Vice-President Moi, D. T. arap in African Research Bulletin: economic, financial, and technical series, 01 1969, p. 1227Google Scholar; and Kaunda, Kenneth, Zambia's Economic Revolution (Lusaka, 1968), pp. 35–7.Google Scholar