Ghana

The Swis­s­hand pro­gramme in Ghana is cur­rent­ly con­cen­trat­ed in the region of Vol­ta in the south­east of the 250’000 km  wide coun­try, as well as the north­east­ern regions. The ben­e­fi­cia­ries often oper­ate small busi­ness­es, such as the sale of food items and drinks, cook­ing shops, beer brew­eries, or the trad­ing of sec­ond-hand shoes and cloth­ing items. Due to the geo­graph­i­cal divi­sion of the coun­try into the coastal plain, the rain for­est, and the savan­nah, are espe­cial­ly those resid­ing in the north of Ghana reliant on the country’s agri­cul­tur­al econ­o­my. Around 40 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion are active in farm­ing, but are most­ly reliant on sub­sis­tence farm­ing, as 80 per­cent of the agri­cul­tur­al yields are pro­duced by small farm­ers. Most of the agri­cul­tur­al pro­duce is gen­er­at­ed for their export to mono­cul­tures on plan­ta­tions, where­by much of the rich and valu­able soil is lost. As a result of this, Swis­s­hand, togeth­er with coop­er­a­tive efforts, tries to guide the sub­sis­tence farm­ers into iden­ti­fy­ing as mar­ket-ori­ent­ed entre­pre­neurs. This will not only strength­en the indi­vid­ual fam­i­lies’ and the vil­lages’ finan­cial posi­tion, but also the entire­ty of the country’s econ­o­my, where­by the import of sta­ple goods can be reduced.

In the south­east of the coun­try, where the dio­cese Ho is locat­ed on an area of around 6’000 km , are three pro­grammes cur­rent­ly active with the help of part­ner organ­i­sa­tions, one of which is in Ho and two more are in Hohoe. The bish­op, respec­tive­ly the dio­ce­ses, make up the coop­er­a­tive, while NGOs are present in the oth­er two, where var­i­ous Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ties have come togeth­er for the col­lab­o­ra­tive improve­ment of liv­ing con­di­tions. The pro­grammes in Ho and Hohoe are espe­cial­ly con­cen­trat­ed on the pro­mo­tion of small-scale entre­pre­neur­ial activ­i­ties. The sec­ond pro­gramme in Hohoe is active­ly tar­get­ing the improve­ment of agri­cul­tur­al yields of rice, corn, and veg­eta­bles. With the help from state experts, small-scale farm­ers are edu­cat­ed on the improve­ment of soil treat­ment which, in com­bi­na­tion with micro­cre­d­its by Swis­s­hand, allow the expan­sion of cul­ti­va­tion areas and the pur­chase of seeds and fertilisers.

Locat­ed in the north of Ghana are two fur­ther pro­grammes: in the north­ern cap­i­tal of Tamale, around 70’000 km  large, and in Bol­gatan­ga, the cap­i­tal of the Upper East region bor­der­ing on Burk­i­na Faso, around 9’000 km . Since many years present, these Swis­s­hand pro­grammes have built the foun­da­tion for the devel­op­ment of fur­ther pro­grammes in these regions. Bon­go and Zebil­la were also able to ben­e­fit from the pro­grammes in Bol­gatan­ga, while projects are in the works in Damon­go and Wa with the help of the pro­gramme in Tamale. In both regions, as well as in the region of Vol­ta, are cur­rent­ly more pro­grammes in their found­ing phas­es, whole in the south, the pro­grammes in Keta Akat­si and in Twi­fu Pra­so have already begun.