Food in Ghana

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Food is a human necessity in every society and it not different in the Ghanaian society. Ghanaians place a lot of value and time on their everyday meals. Ghanaians are very creative when it comes to their foods. These food are eating at all occasions, whether naming ceremony, parties, funerals, Christmas, or festivals. Ghanaian foods are made from yam, cassava, plantain, rice, millet, sweet potatoes, cocoyam, corn, wheat, beans, etc. Ghanaian foods are starchly dominated and these foods are eating raw or with stew or soup or sugar. Though modernization has influenced the way of life in the country the change is not that dramatic, Ghanaians have well blended western culture into theirs.

In the morning generally, some households preferably take milo or tea with bread. For the greater majority, they head striate to the wayside "Ameria" for their Hausa Koko and kosae. Hausa Koko is spicy millet porridge made from fermented millet. The millet is first soaked in water for about two to three days. The water is then drained away milled with some spices like red chili peppers, ginger, and black peppercorns. Hausa Koko is enjoyed with bread, bofrot, and kosae. Hausa Koko is best prepared by northerners in Ghana because it their food.

If Hausa Koko is not your favorite there are other  options like "Oblayo"or Ekoagbemi.The two are made from crushed corn. Just that the size of the Oblayo is bigger than that of the Ekoagbemi. These can be enjoyed with peanuts, milk, bread and bofrot. Ghanaians really have variety to start the morning. Others like Tombrown,Oat, and wheat porridge.

The Ewes have a very popular Porridge called "Korklui", it is made from corn dough. The dough is sieved into small rounded pebbles. The Ewes also have Porridge made from corn flour: white  porridge(silky smooth porridge made from corn dough), white  porridge with saltpeter(saltpeter is added to change the coloure and flavour).

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Not all Ghanaians do the porridge thing in the morning. For some whether in the morning, afternoon or evening they like something heavy.

Ethnically the Akans preferably the  Asantes like Fufu and they can eat it any time of the day.Fufu is pounded cassava and plantain for the Asantis but other forms exist, where pounded tubers are kneaded together and eating with groundnut soup, palm nut soup or light soup. Almost all Ghanaian soups look to have the same preparing formula. Most ingredients used are tomatoes, onions, garden eggs, smoked fish, meat, pepper, garlic, salt and other spices. For example, palm nut soup is done by first boiling the palm nuts and it then pounded, sieved and the other ingredients added to teste.

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The Akans have a very delicious soup prepared with fresh feces or droppings of a grasscutter and it most enjoyed with fufu.

Akple is the favourate of the Ewes and it most enjoyed with okro soup or grounded pepper and kate schoolboys or stew. When it comes to Akple they do not joke and there are different  types of Akple. Akple is made with cornflour or dough. As said the Ewes are very creative when it comes to their Akple.They have Amokple(prepared with corn dough), Awodeme(cornflour and cassava dough or gari cooked together) Dzankple or Akpledzi (beans, coconut,palm oil and cornflour meat,fish). The list is never-ending, Akple can be eating with palm nut or groundnut or light soup as well.

If it comes to cooking in Ghana the ewe women are best and almost any Ghanaian can testify to that effect that the "Davis" are good. The Ewes have a very long list when it comes to food. You can make mention of Abolo,yakayake and  many others

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The Ga's love their Kenkey and hot pepper. Kenkey is a corn-based food, which is made by molding fermented corn dough into balls and wrapped with corn husk which is then boiled. The meal is served with pepper sauce, fried crab, octopus or fish, stew, or soup and is a delicacy of the Ga people.

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The northerners also like their Waakye and Tiozafi. Waakye is simply rice and beans cooked together and can be eating with stew. Tiozafi is also a corn-based food.The "Amerias" make the best Waakye Tiozafi and Hausa koko in the country.

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There are also some general foods you can find on the streets of Accra like Jollof rice, red-red(beans, gari, palm oil and fried plantain),kelewele(spiced fried plantain) Gari soakings (cassava flacks), Ampesi(boiled yam, cassava, plantain eating with stew such as kontomire) and a host of other foods.

As l said early on that Ghanaians are masters when it comes to cultural integration. On the streets, you can find restaurants that serve both western dishes and local cuisines and there are restaurants that serve strictly western food such as chines, Italian Turkish restaurants. The cost of eating at these places is much expensive. Food usually ranges from $ 20 and above.

Most average Ghanaians do not have that much to spend so they prefer the Chop Bars which are the localized restaurants. Food at these places are generally far cheaper. Just with $1 or better you can eat and be satisfied.

These Chop Bars serve variety of local dishes from kokontey(face the wall),banku,fufu, omotuo,TZ,Ampesi.The soups cames with a variety of meat (bushmeat, chicken etc) and fish. You choose what you eat.

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Ethnic Groups and languages in Ghana

Ghana is an ethnically diverse country with several ethnic groups and tribes speaking different languages. It used to be said that before independence the country had about 100+ ethnic group’s languages. Currently it very difficult to tell the exact number of ethnic groups in Ghana. But officially the major ethnic groups in Ghana are the Akans, Mole-Dagbane, Ewe, Guan, and Ga-Adangbe.All these ethnic groups are subdivided into subgroups. The subdivisions of each group share a common cultural heritage, history, language, and origin.

The Akan group is the majority in present-day Ghana. They belong to the Kwa group like the Ewe and the Ga-Adangbe according to linguistic language classification. While the  Gur-speaking people are the Gurma, Grusi, and Mole-Dagbane.The Kwa and the Gur are the two major linguistic subfamilies which come from Niger-Congo linguistic family. The Kwa linguistic group can be found in the south of the Volta River, constituting 75% of Ghana’s population while the Gur group are in the north of the Volta River.

Akans

The Akans are divided into the Asante, Fante, Akwapim, Akyem, Akwamu, Ahanta, Bono, Nzema, Kwahu, and Safwi.The Asante’s are the biggest in the Akan group and also in the country. They speak Twi and makeup 47.5% of Ghana’s population. The Twi dialect has become one of the commonest dialects in the country coming second after English. The Asante’s are said to be proud and confident because of their wealth and power. The Asante Kingdome is one of the largest in Africa. Though the Kingdom pride itself in gold and other precious minerals, more than 50% of its inhabitance are very poor.

 

Mole-Dagbane

Mole Dagbane groups form 16.5% of the population of Ghana and have a common ancestor. They speak the Dagbani language and are related to the Mossi who have their homeland in present-day Burkina Faso. Its speakers are culturally the most varied; they include the Nanumba, Dagomba, Mamprusi, Wala, Builsa, Frafra, Talensi, and Kusase. The northern sector of the country is the most deprived in term of development and most of the poorest communities can be located there.

Ewes

The Ewe land which constitutes a single linguistic group, are divided into the Nkonya, Tafi, Logba, Sontrokofi, Lolobi, and Likpe.The Ewes are said to hail from the northern part of Nigeria, other accounts say east and another suggests it west. They are located in Benin, Togo and the Volta Region of Ghana. They speak four dialects that are Anglo, Awuna, Hudu, and Kotafoa. They account for 13.9% of the Ghanaian population and speak the Ewe language. Most of the dwellers are traditionalist with a large number of smaller deities. They have a very rich culture which is music-driven. The  Ewe women are said to be the most beautiful and industrious in the country. The region is blessed with oil but it's among one of the deprived and underdeveloped regions in the country.

 

Just to mention a few numbers of languages spoken in different regions of Ghana. The Asantes speak Twi. Within the Upper West Region, languages ​​are spoken include Gagaare, Birifor and Sisaala. Ghanaians living in the Northern Region speak Dagbane, Gonja, Anufo / Chokosi, Mampruli, Mo, Deg, Nawuri, Chumburung, Birifor, Hanga, Konkomba and Tampulma among other languages. In the Volta Regions of Ghana, the languages ​​spoken are Akyode, Nkonya, Adele, Ntrubo and Ewe. Kasem, Buli, Frafra, Kusaal, Kasem and Koma are spoken by people living in the Upper Eastern Region of Ghana. People who live in the Greater Accra Region speak Ga and Dangbe. On the other hand, those who live in the western region speak the Nzema.   

List of Ethnic Groups in Ghana and Population Percentage

Ashanti 47.5%

Mole-Dangbon 16.6%

Ewe 13.9%

Ga-Dangme 7.4%

Gurma 5.7%

Guang 3.7%

Grusi 2.5%

Mande 1.1%

Other Groups 1.4%

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Geographic location and claimate of Ghana

Ghana covers 238,540 km² of land including water bodies. Its geographic coordinates are 800 N, 200 W. By comparison, Ghana is about the size of Britain. Sharing borders with  Burkina Faso to  the north, Ivory Coast (west), Togo  to the east, and is bathed by the Gulf of Guinea and  the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Ghana is a land of plains and low plateaus with a blend of many lagoons, streams, and rivers. The coastal belt is the lowest point of Ghana at 0 meters with a length of 539 Km and mostly sandy. The Greater Accra Region is the capital bordered on the north by the Eastern Region, on the east by the Volta Region, on the south by the Gulf of Guinea, and on the west by the Central Region. The Northern Region used to be the largest until recent two other regions Savannah Region and North East Regions were carved from it. It bordered on the south by the Oti region also carved out of the Volta region.  Upper West Region of Ghana is located in the north-western corner of Ghana and is bordered by Upper East region to the east. The Ashanti kingdom is centrally located in the middle belt of Ghana. The region shares boundaries with, Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regions in the north, Eastern region in the east, Central region in the south and Western region in the Southwest.

Mount Afadjato, is the highest point of Ghana measuring at about  880 meters above sea level. Ghana has a number of thick forests, lakes, streams and a number of rivers. Two major rivers - the Nakambe River(White Volta) and Mouhoun River(the Black Volta) flow from  Burkina Faso into Ghana. These two "Voltas" meet to form the huge Volta Lake the world's largest artificial lake. Lake Volta can be located in the Volta Region. Covering an estimated surface area of 3,283 square miles and 62 feet at average depth. The lake generates electricity, provides inland transportation and is a potentially valuable resource for irrigation and fish farming. The Volta Lake stretches from the Akosombo Dam in south-eastern Ghana to the town of Yapei, 520 km (325 mi.) to the north, and enters the sea at Ada. 

 There are other bigger lakes like  Bosumtwi in the Ashanti Region which is the second biggest in the country covering an estimated surface area of 19 square miles. It has a  maximum length of 5.3 miles and 5.0 miles in width with an average depth of 148 feet.

Other rivers in Ghana: River Densu Bia River, Tano River, Nini River, Ankobra River, Pra River,Ofin River, Birim River, Anum River,Ayensu River,Volta River, Todzie River and Afram River just to mention a few.

Ghana's low coastline is backed by plains and shrubs which is mostly sandy having a tropical rain forest belt near the Ivory Coast frontier extending northward from the shore which are characterised by a number of streams and rivers and heavily forested hills. This part of the country produces most of the  economic resources like cocoa, timber and the earth minerals.

Climate

Ghana is only a few degrees north of the Equator, its climate is tropical. Climatic conditions across the country are not uniform. The extent of drought and rainfall varies across the country. Generally, Ghana has two seasons the wet and dry season. Ghana experiences it raining seasons from about April through late June. Just after August which is generally dry another rainy season begins in September and lasts through November. From January to April, a longer harmattan season set in. The harmattan period always comes with a drop in humidity with the north experiencing much hotter day and cooler nights than the other regions. The southern part of Ghana is the rainiest with the southwest corner having the heaviest in the sub where it reaches 2,000 mm (80 in) per year. The northern savanna, The driest areas receives rainfall of around 1,000 mm (40 in) per year. The lower Volta region, Accra plains, including Takoradi rainfall averages drops below 800 mm (31.5 in). 

All year round temperature is usually high throughout the country with the northern part recording the highest. Ghana has a mean temperature between 26°C and 29°C. At mountainous areas temperatures are a bit low and conducive. In the north temperature as high as 31°C are prevalent while humidity can drops as low as 25 during the harmattan season. For the southern part of the country during the night hour humidity of 95 to 100 percent are common. But generally, the south is humid.

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The Economy of Ghana

The economy of Ghana is market-based, It is the second-largest export of cocoa globally. It also the largest exporter of gold in the sub-region. Ghana is well endowed with natural resources and agriculture accounting for about 20% of  GDP and employs more than half of the workforce. While the service sector accounts for 50% of GDP. The major exports of the country include gold, cocoa beans, and timber products. Others include tuna, aluminum, manganese ore, diamonds, and horticulture. Just after independence in 1957 Ghana has tried to modernize its economy of which they made great progress, by developing industry and its agriculture.

 

Agriculture is based on coffee, banana, potato, corn, and rice production. The industry operates in food, beverage, cigarette, chemical, metallurgical and timber production. Ghana also cultivates many other export products, such as rubber, palm oil, and kola nuts. Though Ghana does export in agriculture, majority of it farmers do only subsistence farming.

Shortly after independence just about the 1960s to 1980s Ghana was hit by corruption and several military takeovers which brought the economy on its knees. 

The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and relevant international donor communities proposed radical structural adjustment to revive the troubled economy and to restore their productivity. The then  government led by Jerry John Rawlings accepted the reform, the government introduced a series of free-market reforms In 1983. In an effort to revive the faltering economy. As part of the reform, rural electrification was deepened and new roads constructed. Also, Farmers were paid more money for their crops thereby increasing agricultural production.

In 2001 Ghana was hit by another economic crisis, Ghana was declared a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC). According to the then President, John Agyekum Kufuor, the decision was strategic because the economy he inherited was so bad that all donor partners had abandoned Ghana and the move was significant in putting the economy back on its tracks. In 2006 Ghana signed a five-year Compact, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which aims to assist in the transformation of Ghana's agricultural sector.
In 2007 Ghana discovered offshore oil within its marine boundaries and by the mid-2010, production officially began and is expected to boost economic growth.  In 2016 and 2017, the production of another two oil fields TEN and Sankofa started respectively. With TEN initially supplied about 20,000 barrels per day. Ghana has a gas processing plant at Atuabo producing gas for power generation which is from the Jubilee field. Apart from the oil reserves, there is significant natural gas deposits below the country’s seabed which is yet to be tapped. The gas deposit is estimated to be more than 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas. 

Whether the black gold resource for Ghana turns out to be a curse or a blessing only time can tell.
Ghana In 2009, signed a three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth  program with the IMF to improve macroeconomic stability, private sector competitiveness, human resource development and good governance and civic responsibility.

The government has also introduced several programs to help in development and poverty eradication.

Like Zongo Development Fund (ZDF), by the Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development, the National Entrepreneurship Innovation Program (NEIP), the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Program (IPEP).One popular of them is the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) a program designed to employ the unemployed graduates.

 

 Through increased foreign direct investment, especially from China, lavish transfers of Ghanaian overseas, growing tourism and lending from relevant international development institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, and African Development Bank are contributing significantly to growth and modernization of its economy. Discovery of oil has also brought about enormously costly investments in the oil and gas sector and the necessary improvements in infrastructure.

But there is still considerable potential for growth in the traditional agricultural sectors and the poorly developed industrial sector. Going forward Ghana needs to massively develop its economy by investing in its agriculture and industrial sector through technology and innovation for the future. 

After slower growth in 2015 and 2016 due to low commodity prices, the cost of electricity and the cost of credit, which hampered business activity and competitiveness, 2017 marked the return to substantial growth - 7.9% by the government and 5.9% by the IMF. The year 2018 marked growth of 6.9%. Ghana was one of the strongest countries in 2018 in terms of growth in all of sub-Saharan Africa. For 2019, the World Bank anticipates a growth rate of 6.7%.

With 9.4% inflation in 2018, Ghana continues to limit the price increase, this result following a year 2016 marked by inflation of 15.4% (after 18% in 2015). The fall in inflation is the result of a strict monetary policy of the Central Bank of Ghana with a key rate maintained at 26% in 2016. Nevertheless, the improvement in the economic situation and the desire to support growth has enabled the Central Bank to carry out a five-fold consecutive rate cut to 20% since the end of 2017.

The local currency, the cedi, increased against the dollar for most of 2018, going from 4.52 GHS for 1 USD in January 2019 to 4.89 GHS. The national currency, on the other hand, suffered the global appreciation of the euro, going from 4.5 GHS (in 2017) for 1 EUR in December 2019 to 5.6 GHS.

 Surprisingly the cedis has been the best performing currency against the dollar this year 2020.The currency  has strengthened 3.9%  the most among more than 140 currencies as against a 13% drop last year.

 But it looks like the worlds second producer of cocoa needs more to be done. Currently Ghana is  one of the most indebted economies in sub-Saharan Africa: its debt represents 71% of its GDP and also increased public debt and shortfalls in domestic revenues pose challenges to further macroeconomic improvements.

But hope is not lost as government is poised to working hard to achieving it gender Ghana Beyond Aid.

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Facebook unveiled plans for a new global cryptocurrency called Libra

Facebook unveiled plans Tuesday for a new global cryptocurrency called Libra, pledging to deliver a stable virtual money that lives on smartphones and brings over a billion "unbanked" people into the financial system.

The Libra coin plan, backed by financial and nonprofit partners, represents an ambitious new initiative for the world's biggest social network with the potential to bring crypto-money out of the shadows and into the mainstream.

Facebook and some two dozen partners released a prototype of Libra as an open source code for developers interested in weaving it into apps, services or businesses ahead of a rollout as global digital money next year.

The nonprofit Libra Association based in Geneva will oversee the blockchain-based coin, maintaining a real-world asset reserve to keep its value stable.

The initiative has the potential to allow more than a billion "unbanked" people around the world access to online commerce and financial services at minimal cost, said Libra Association head of policy and communications Dante Disparte.

"We believe if you give people access to money and opportunity at the lowest cost, the way the internet itself did in the past with information, you can create a lot more stability than we have had up until now," Disparte told AFP.

Facebook will be just one voice among many in the association, but is separately building a digital wallet called Calibra.

"We view this as a complement to Facebook's mission to connect people wherever they are; that includes allowing them to exchange value," Calibra vice president of operations Tomer Barel told AFP.

"Many people who use Facebook are in countries where there are barriers to banking or credit."

But the move raised questions about how such a new money would be regulated.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said such digital money could never replace sovereign currencies.

"The aspect of sovereignty must stay in the hands of states and not private companies which respond to private interests," Le Maire told Europe 1 radio.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said Facebook's new currency would have to withstand scrutiny of its operational resilience and not allow itself to be used for money laundering or terror financing.

ING economists Teunis Brosens and Carlo Cocuzzo said in a research note it's not clear what Libra is or how it may be overseen.

"Given that Libra is not denominated in domestic currency, but reflects a currency basket, it is probably more like security," they wrote.

"This takes us right back to the discussion that has been haunting cryptocurrency for years: is it a security or something else?"

Backed by real cash 

Libra Association debuted with 28 members including Mastercard, Visa, Stripe, Kiva, PayPal, Lyft, Uber and Women's World Banking.

 Calibra is being built into Facebook's Messenger and WhatsApp with a goal of letting users send Libra as easily as they might fire off a text message.

Libra learned from the many other cryptocurrencies that have preceded it such as bitcoin and is designed to avoid the roller-coaster valuations that have attracted speculation and caused ruin.

Real-world currency will go into a reserve backing the digital money, the value of which will mirror stable currencies such as the US dollar and the euro, according to its creators.

"It is backed by a reserve of assets that ensures utility and low volatility," Tomer said.

The Libra Association will be the only entity able to "mint or burn" the digital currency, maintaining supply in tune with demand and assets in reserve, according to Barel.

"It is not about trusting Facebook, it is effectively trust in the association's founding organizations that this is independent and democratic," Disparte said.

New directions 

The launch comes with Facebook seeking to move past a series of lapses on privacy and data protection which have tarnished its image and sparked scrutiny from regulators around the world.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has promised a new direction for Facebook built around smaller groups, private messaging and payments.

The new Calibra digital wallet promises to eventually give Facebook opportunities to build financial services into its offerings, offer to expand its own commerce and let more small businesses buy ads at the social network.

"We certainly see long-term value for Facebook," Barel said.

Facebook said it will not make any money through Libra or Calibra but that it is seeking to "drive adoption and scale" before exploring ways to monetize the new system.

Financial information at Calibra will be kept strictly separate from social data at Facebook and won't be used to target ads, Calibra vice president of product Kevin Weil told AFP.

Libra will be a regulated currency, subject to local laws in markets regarding fraud, guarding against money laundering and more, according to Weil.

'Watershed' moment? 

According to Facebook and its partners, local currencies and Libra may be swapped at currency exchange houses or other businesses.

And the ubiquity of smartphones means digital wallets for Libra could make banking and credit card services and e-commerce available in places where they don't now exist.

Analyst and cryptocurrency investor Lou Kerner said Facebook's move has the potential to open the door for cryptocurrency to a wider public.

"What Facebook is really good at, is making things really simple to use," Kerner told AFP.

"And that's what is super exciting for the crypto industry, is somebody comes along who understands user experience and has billions of users that they can roll this out to."

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