COTTON INDUSTRIES CHANGING IN AFRICA

摘要

Governments arere ducing the role of the public sector in economic activity across Africa, and Ghana is part of this tendency. In the 1980s, over 300 public-sector enterprises owned by the government controlled most aspects of manufacturing, mining and agricultural marketing in Ghana; the public-sector enterprises accounted for more than half of all formal employment, but efficiency was low, subsidies were requi redande conomic growth was slow. Ghana formally launched a privatization program in 1988,and the Ghana Cotton Company (GCC) was sold in 1995 toprivate in vestors, in cluding in put suppliers, trading firms, textile mills, banks and others. The results during the first year of privatization were not all that were hoped for, but improvementsare expected. The cotton industry in Ghana continues to function largely as it did prior to privatization when the GCC maintained a monopoly over the purchase and ginning of seed cotton. It will take time, probably at least several more seasons, before farmers, ginners, input suppliers and the textile mills adjust to the new environment with multiple marketing channels.