The good news is that I accomplished a lot today! Starting at 3am, I checked my email, finished reading all of the papers I needed to read, showered, and then headed down to breakfast. At 8:30am, we officially started the day by meeting various ministers in Accra. We were still at the nice hotel in Accra, and CDC had reserved a conference room for the day. We met Barbara, the Ghana country focal point for CDC, and she is lovely (inside and out). It’s nice to finally have a face with the name and voice who has been helping us for the last 2 months.
Our schedule was full today as we prepared for our assignments. We met people from the government and the national industrial chamber of commerce. First, we heard from the Minister of Trade & Industry. He presented a lot of helpful insight related to MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) in Ghana. MSMEs make up more than 85% of registered businesses in Ghana, provide the majority of private sector employment, and are crucial for poverty reduction. Unfortunately, these MSMEs only contribute less than 10% total GDP so the ministry is working to increase their competitiveness by:
1. Supporting entrepreneurial development
2. Reducing business constraints
3. Enabling infrastructure
A major project (over US$100M, expected completion in 2011) is focused on:
1. Access to finance
2. Access to markets, trade facilitation, and entrepreneurial development
3. Business environment reforms
4. Implementation, monitoring, and evaluation
Our team asked a lot of questions and gathered very good information that will enable us to be more successful as we start our consulting projects Monday.
On a humorous note, my sleep deprivation caused two very funny experiences for me:
* When the Minister of Trade & Industry was talking about an initiative in the garment village, I somehow heard “llama” and I still have no idea what he actually said
* The other one, you’ll have to ask me about the business website address (but it made me laugh so hard I started crying)
Next, we heard from the Ghana National Petroleum Company. I learned how countries define their off-shore borders, which is helpful for Ghana because neither the Ivory Coast nor Togo are laying claim to the offshore oil that has been found. The geophysicist enlightened us about the legal framework of petroleum exploration and production. We had a very good discussion about the laws in place to govern the petroleum industry in Ghana, as well as the timeframe for oil production from the reserve they found. At some point during his presentation, we lost power (no air conditioning, no lights, no computer, no power at all) and he didn’t even flinch. It was a great reminder on our first work day that we need to be prepared for intermittent power and intermittent internet access.
Finally, we heard from the Minister of Communications, who essentially serves as the CIO for Ghana. He talked about the fiber optic backbone that runs from Accra to northern Ghana, and he told us all about the different agencies that fall under the ministry. In addition, we learned that ~11.7M of the ~22M people who live in Ghana have either a landline or cell phone (the minister proudly declared it was 53.2%).
Without calling out the specific minister, I will say that the funniest comment was in response to a question we asked about whether companies that benefit from a certain infrastructure helped pay for said infrastructure “No, but we tax them excessively and then part of the taxes are used for…” and we all fell out laughing.
Here is a picture of our team today, on some steps at the hotel. We range in age from ~25 to ~55, and in height from ~5’0” to ~6’5”, and we are Prasad, Yaw, Ananda, Rosa, Kacie, Volker, Tasha, and Carolyn (sorry so dark, I guess I need to find the flash on my new camera):
A completely unrelated topic, as a shout out to Lori, is that every time I went to the ladies room during the day in that fancy hotel (only one ladies room, so it was the same one each time), the toilet paper was re-folded very nicely.
I wrote that portion of the blog on the 4-hour ride from Accra to Takoradi. We finished our business meetings, had lunch (so far, I love the food especially since plantains are plentiful), and got in a bus to drive to Takoradi.
I am very pleased with our hotel here in Takoradi, and it is much nicer than I expected. It is not new, but it is clean and the staff is friendly. My room is much larger than I anticipated, and so far the internet is working well. I do in fact have AC, plus a clean tub, and even a TV (not that I’ll ever actually use it, but nice to have). It’s dark so I can’t see whether I have any kind of view, but it looks and feels safe. I even have a nice little desk where I can type. The only real drawbacks I have noticed so far are:
1. the room doesn’t smell very good, but luckily they have a little tart-burner-like contraption so I can buy some essential oil and matches and fix that tomorrow
2. the bathroom sink has a very strange faucet where the Hot and Cold spouts (not just the handles but the actual spouts) are separated by ~6” so it’s difficult to get warm water (one hand is burning while the other is cold)
In terms of packing, it seems that the only things I forgot were extra business cards, a laundry bag, and the little candles I planned to bring in case my room smelled funny. I feel pretty good about everything so far.
Tomorrow we have most of the day off, so I look forward to finding a church, exploring Takoradi, and buying something so my room doesn’t smell like the stinky solid deodorizer that reminds me of a sanihut :)
By the way, Matt, there is a Gideon’s Bible (New Testament, in German, French, and English) in my room.
Thanks for reading, hope you are all doing well!
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