The First Challenges to Development

Throughout these last few weeks, some of the most pertinent problems of African development surfaced. These included a few general themes: the recent energy crisis, unemployment, and poverty. I spoke with Jimna, a second year student at the University of Ghana, about the recent energy crisis. He told me that because of repairs to the large dam in Ghana that supplies most of the electricity to the state, there are rolling blackouts affecting the whole country. He said that they could have made the repairs gradually before suffering as great a loss, but that this type of forward planning was not practiced and so it cost the state more. At the University, every five days the power will be cut for a 12 hour period. This is a similar schedule for the Accra region. Ghana, unlike other African countries, has accustomed itself to uninterrupted power over the last decade and so this is unusual for them as it slows their economy somewhat.

I spoke to Paul, a local Ghanaian and student of the University of Ghana, who said that he had been looking for an internship over the summer but could not find one. He said that most university students do not work while attending school—rather their parents cover all their expenses. Although tuition is subsidized by the state, this poses an access problem for the poor who cannot afford school if their parents are not wealthy. Paul said loans are hard to come by here which makes things more difficult because working while in school is a rare occurrence. Because parents pay for most of the expenses, they have more authority of their children’s actions and so Ghanaian children often are closer and more respectful of their parents than in the United States and other western nations.

I did travel to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, which is in the interior of Ghana at Kumasi. Here, I learned that about 80% of graduating seniors find jobs immediately. This is partly due to the national service requirement for all students of public higher education in Ghana. This service requirement is an 8 month internship for all graduates which they must complete prior to getting into their career. Supposedly this service defrays for subsidized tuition and gives the student practical job experience before looking for their own job. It seems pretty reliable and economically feasible.

Poverty is another aspect I had not yet experienced first hand until we traveled to the first rural village near Lake Bosomtwe. I met a child in primary school named Paul who struggled to pay school fees because his father was a local fisherman who had not been having the best catches lately. His father would catch fish early in the morning and try to sell the fish locally to make enough money to send his children to school. Paul said the fee was about 1 Ghana Cedi per day (equivalent of about $1 per day). Also, the dry season in Ghana kills the crops which makes harvests lower and sales lower. Traveling to several craft villages, children approached who begged for pens, bottles, and money. Although it didn’t seem like all were impoverished, they had certainly been conditioned to beg from foreigners in a certain way.