In the mid-1980s, labor productivity in Ghana was generally understood to be low by international standards, but the amount of hard data was limited. The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Technology Consulting Center (TCC), Kumasi, kept detailed records of its own production units for many years, but apart from that only anecdotal information was obtained by visiting various plants foreign-owned in Ghana. However, these sparse data suggested a significant difference between labor productivity in Ghana and in the rapidly developing countries of Asia.
In 1977, the director of TCC wrote a report on a six-month study leave in India. He had studied the home textile industry and collected data on the productivity of handloom weavers. The TCC had operated a handloom production unit in Kumasi for a number of years, and production was generally close to one meter of cloth per weaver per day. In Uttar Pradesh, self-employed weavers using similar looms were found to average three meters per day.
In discussing this difference in productivity, the first factors people mentioned were the weather and the health of the weavers. Considering the whole year, the climate in Ghana is warmer and more humid than that of North India and this probably had a small effect on reducing production. In terms of health, it was generally concluded that there was not much difference. So it was thought that the critical factor might be that Indian weavers were self-employed, but when some weavers were helped to become self-employed in Ghana, their production only increased a little and this was mainly due to longer working hours. long.
Data from other industries was only anecdotal. Engineering students from KNUST visited a sugar mill in Komenda in the Central Region of Ghana. It was under the leadership of Pakistan. A student asked the manager if the plant was making a profit and when told no, the student asked why. The manager said that the problem was cutting the sugar cane in the fields where it grows. He couldn’t get the cane into the plant fast enough.
When asked about international comparisons, the sugar mill manager said that in Australia, where productivity was higher, each worker averaged about five tons of cut cane per day. In India and Pakistan the comparable figure was about two tons per day, but in Ghana they had never been able to reach one ton per day.
On another occasion, KNUST students visited the British Aluminum Company’s bauxite mines in Awaso, in the western region of Ghana. This is where the ore is mined for shipment via the port of Takoradi to Britain, where it is processed into aluminum metal. The English managing director was asked if the plant was operating at a profit. Once again, the answer was ‘no’. One student expressed his incredulity by exclaiming: ‘There is no profit to be made on our cheap labor!’ The managing director was quite angry at this comment and replied: ‘Don’t tell me Ghanaian labor is cheap! It is the most expensive in the world! With German labor at German wages I could make a profit!’
History may hold the key to Ghanaians’ laid-back attitude toward hard work. Until the last fifty years, life was relatively easy in Ghana. Population density was low, most people were farmers, food was plentiful, and most people had enough to eat. In many Asian countries, however, population density was high, food was often scarce, and life was much more difficult. So Asians developed a culture that honored hard work. Hindus have an adage: ‘work is worship’. This level of worship did not exist in Ghana.
Asian countries have developed rapidly through the exploitation of cheap labour, but in the absence of a strong work ethic and with the expectation of high wages, the Ghanaian workforce is almost proof of exploitation, as researchers found. unlucky foreigners in Komenda and Awaso. Greater productivity must be based on better means of production: new technology. The population is growing rapidly and more and more people are living in poverty. Over time, more people may be prepared to work hard for low wages, but this may be a long shot. Most people hope that Ghana will be rescued by technology before a Victorian era of sweaty labor is necessary.
