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Ghana’s industrial sector is still quite small and import-reliant, with manufacturing making just a modest contribution to GDP. The sector has traditionally been based around a few key products, including cement, metals and agricultural products such as cocoa. However, a new five-year plan for the 2011-15 period has established the aim of increasing industrial competitiveness. This will largely be achieved through upgrading technology, improving the manufacturing value chain, putting in place more incentives and regulations for producers and raising work safety standards. The outlook for the retail sector, meanwhile, is optimistic, particularly given rising purchasing power and improved distribution networks. This chapter contains interviews with Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry; and Ashok R Mohinani, Executive Director, Mohinani Group.

Accounting for 10.1% of GDP in 2011, the transport sector in Ghana is comparable to several other countries within the same income bracket in the region. Major increases in imports and exports in recent years, along with the relatively recent development of oil and gas production, have helped push the expansion of transport and logistics in the country, with traffic at the two seaports having grown significantly. The country must now focus on creating a more integrated transport network, which could eventually make it a transport hub for the sub-region. This will include extending the all-season road network and upgrading its existing roads and highways. This chapter includes an interview with Geoffrey White, Director and CEO, Lonrho.

Since the discovery of offshore oil reserves in 2007, the Ghanaian government has reached a number of important decisions regarding production and distribution, and set the aim of reaching production in just 42 months. Crude oil output accounted for 6.8% of GDP in 2011, the first year of hydrocarbons production, and production is expected to be increased to 120,000 barrels per day by mid-2013. However, more questions are also now being raised regarding the long-term sustainability of oil production, the costs to producers and the best ways to engage with international oil companies. The government and producers alike are now faced with issues of infrastructural development, with the need to maximise the benefit of the industry to local communities and establish gas production and transport facilities being particularly pressing. This chapter contains interviews with Joe Oteng-Adjel, Minister of Energy; and Kwesi Botchwey, Chairman, Ghana National Gas Company.

In partnership with Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah, OBG introduces the reader to different aspects of the Ghanaian legal system. This chapter includes a viewpoint on oil-backed borrowing by Kojo Bentsi-Enchill, Senior Partner and Head of Energy & Natural Resources at Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah.

Fuelled by public infrastructure maintenance and expansion, private real estate development and individual residential construction, Ghana’s construction industry has been growing steadily, with sector output increasing by 91.8% between 2006 and 2010. With demand for individual family houses – particularly in the low-income bracket – on the rise and plans in place to develop a number of new cities in the Western Region, this trend looks set to continue. Additionally, with the rise of a middle class in the country, it seems the real estate sector – traditionally a very limited market – is beginning to pick up. The housing demand is high and there is a current annual supply gap of 30,000 residential units. This chapter contains interviews with Stephen Jennings, CEO, Renaissance Group; and Emmanuel Botchwey, Executive Chairman, Regimanuel Gray.

As the country’s largest employer, the agriculture sector accounts for 28.3% of GDP and produces cereals, grains, fruits, vegetables, shea nuts, starchy staple crops and cotton, among other plants. Cultivated in six of the country’s 10 regions, cocoa is Ghana’s top agricultural export, rising to a value of $1.42bn in 2009. Indeed, having produced a record 1m tonnes in 2011, Ghana is the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, behind only its neighbour, Cote d’Ivoire. Recent years have brought greater numbers of private-sector players, including a number of foreign investors, who are investing in crops like palm oil and facilitating the logistics in creating local processing facilities and enabling value-added activities. This section includes an interview with Anthony Fofie, CEO, Ghana Cocoa Board.