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African Initiatives in Ghana & Tanzania
Tanzania
Geography
Tanzania is located in Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Kenya and Mozambique. Kilimanjaro in the north is the highest point in Africa at 6000m, while the Great Rift Valley runs through the centre of the country. Environmental problems include soil degradation, deforestation, destruction of coral reefs, droughts and threats to wildlife from illegal hunting and trade, especially for ivory. Agriculture is the lynchpin of the economy and employs about 85% of the country’s workforce. The main food crops are maize, cassava, sorghum, rice and millet.
Population
The population of Tanzania is 36,820,000 (2002). 35% of the population is Muslim however an equal proportion follows traditional religions.
History
The Portuguese arrived in Tanzania in the late fifteenth century. Colonial rule disrupted the traditional local economic networks. The Portuguese were ousted by the Sultanate of Oman in 1730 who were heavily involved with the slave trade. Independence was finally achieved in 1961 when Julius Nyerere, who had set up the Tanganyika African National Party in 1954, became the country’s first president and remained as head of state for 24 years. Nyerere issued the Arusha Declaration, socialist in its method, with self-sufficiency being the main objective. Priority was given to the development of agriculture on the basis of communal land ownership. Since the late 1980s, the Charma Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has dominated the political scene.
Trade and Debt
Today, Tanzania’s external debt stands at US$7445 million, which is $212 per person. This means that 15.6% of Tanzania’s export earnings are required to service the national debt.
In 1986, an economic recovery plan went into effect, following IMF and World Bank guidelines and in 1993 the Government pledged to the IMF it would implement a strict programme of economic adjustment. These measures have had disastrous consequences, including the elimination of 20,000 public sector jobs. Education spending has been reduced by 30% and electricity bills and taxes have been raised.
Tanzania is now considered for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC). But the implications of subsidies have negated any positive effect this status might have. At its peak the cotton industry was Tanzania’s largest employer, with 14 textile mills employing nearly 35,000 people. Today most of the factories have closed down. This is because there are heavy cotton subsidies (50%) in the USA. Because of subsidies, Tanzania will find it easier to import something than buy it locally and Tanzanian farmers find it hard to compete with Western farmers because their production costs are much lower.
The impact of subsidies is far bigger than the amount of aid Tanzania is receiving under HIPC status.
Ghana
"Freedom is not something that people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them."
Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana
Geography
Northern Ghana is the drier sub-Sahael region of wide savannas compared to the coastal, tropical rainforest and urban zones of the South. It is characterised by only one 6 week, variable rainy season a year and poor soil fertility. Environmental problems include deforestation, water pollution and lack of drinking water while desertification is a problem in the north. Intensive agricultural production and the use of agrochemicals increases soil infertility and top soil erosion. Significant resources are gold, cocoa, coffee, and timber while the main food crops are rice; poultry and tomatoes.
Population
The population of Ghana is 20,176,000(2002). The majority of people live in rural areas, with 38% living in the urban centres. By 2012 this is expected to rise to over 50%. Most Ghanaians live in the south of the country. Christianity is the major religion for 50% of people and predominates in the south. Islam (13%) is more common in the north and Traditional religions (32%) are practiced throughout.
History
Since their arrival in the 14th Century the Ashanti have been the dominant tribal group in Ghana. They began to trade slaves in the 15th Century and it is estimated that roughly 6.3 million slaves were shipped from West Africa to the Americas. The Ashanti state was annexed by the British in 1902 and renamed the Gold Coast On March 6th 1957. Ghana became the first country in West Africa to achieve independence led by Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and father of pan-Africanism. Since independence, Ghana’s history has been dogged by a series of coups led by Lt. Jerry Rawlings whose National Democratic Congress dominated politics for 20 years until 2001 when John Kufuor and the New Patriotic Party took power in the first democratic transition of government.
Trade and Debt
Ghana’s economy is considered by the World Bank as one of the strongest in Africa yet poverty is increasing and Ghana’s external debt now stands at US$345 per person, almost $7 billion nationally. 20% of Ghana’s export earnings are required to service the national debt. The country is among the leading producers of cocoa, which has been a primary export crop and an important way of generating foreign exchange earnings to repay back loans. In the last ten years the price of cocoa beans has halved. UK import tax on cocoa beans is 3% while import tax on chocolate is 16%. It seems therefore that Ghana is encouraged to export cocoa beans rather than adding value to the product by manufacturing chocolate themselves.
Today, Ghana is considered for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC). However this debt relief, aid and new loans come with social and economic policies attached. These are often unpopular, undemocratic and fail to reduce poverty – including the forced privatisation of water services and “Liberalisation”, which forces open Ghana’s agriculture markets to foreign imports.
Ghana is not allowed to invest or subsidise its farmers yet heavily subsidised chicken, rice and tomatoes which are dumped in local markets by the EU and US are now cheaper than local produce.