Ghana offers Indian firms easy access to America

NEW DELHI: India and Ghana may have been colonies of the British but there is something odd about the fact that despite five decades of freedom, India buys Ghanaian cocoa via London and sell medicines to the west African nation via Europe.

Trading through third countries and not capitalising on good investment opportunities characterise India’s relations with African countries.

Now Ghana whose president, John Agyekum Kufuor, will be visiting here next week is trying to get New Delhi to see the light on the ‘dark continent’. During the visit, Ghana hopes to sell itself to India as a gateway to the American market.

Since Ghana qualifies under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act to export goods to the US free of any duties or quota restrictions, Indian JVs in Ghana could send products to the US market. Jobs for Ghanaians and forex for Indians, it’s a win-win situation.

Ghana hopes the visit will provide a solution to the long-standing problem of the import of cocoa beans to India. Under a 1989 order, revisited last year, the import of cocoa beans from Ghana has been prohibited on the grounds that they attract provisions restricting import of coca as seed or plant material. Cadbury, the bean’s end-user in India, has been pointing out that the cocoa being imported for industrial use undergoes a microbial curing process.