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 COMPANY PROFILE
The Timber Export Development Division (TEDD) was established by the Timber Export Development Board Law of 1985. It has its headquarters in Takoradi and an office in London.
TEDD undertakes to :
promote and develop markets for Ghana’s timber species and products,
collect, analyze and disseminate market intelligence including demand trends,
liaise with relevant associations and timber producers to further develop and service markets,
work with the Forest Products Inspection Bureau t o compile and publish regular timber export statistics,
provide publications giving information about markets and products for the benefit of those engaged in Ghana’s timber trade.
TEDD has a Managing Director who is responsible to a Chairman and a Board of six Directors appointed by the Government.
It produces the "Ghana Gazette" and other publications. TEDD also has a central role in the newly established Wood Industries Training Centre at Akyawkrom, near Kumasi.
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN THE TIMBER SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA
 INTRODUCTION
Ghana is richly endowed with forests that abound in a wide range of fine tropical hardwoods.
Ghana’s forest sector is a major contributor to the national economy. The sector accounts for about 11% of total export earnings of he country. The timber industry contributes about 6% if the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs a labour force of over 75,000 people, whilst providing direct livelihood to about 2 million people.
FOREST AND TIMBER RESOURCES
Ghana’s high forest covers an area of about 7 mil. ha., from a total land area of about 23.85 mil. ha., which is located in the south and south western part of the country. The rest is mainly savanna woodland. The timber resource is mainly from the closed forest, 760,000ha. of which is well stocked for sustainable timber production. National inventory in 1989 recorded 680 tree species in Ghana’s forest of which 240 species grow to timber size with about 126 of them in sufficient quantities for exportation. The annual allowable cut from the forest is about 1 million m3.
To improve the quality of the forest, afforestation and reforestation is being vigorously pursued. To augment the private sector effort in plantation development, a policy decision to promote private commercial plantation forestry as a strategy to ensure that future requirement for industrial wood would be met from planted timber. This is designed to develop the institutions and facilities necessary to encourage plantation establishment of 10,000ha per year, thereby creating a resource of up to 200,000ha of industrial timber to support the management of the remaining natural timber resources in a sustainable manner. It is important to note that Ghana already has about 90,000ha of plantation.
Ghana, Malaysia and Indonesia are the only three of International Tropical Organization (ITTO) member nations found to be working to meet the year 2000 deadline for establishing across-the-board sustainable management.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE TIMBER INDUSTRY
The structure of the Ghana Timber Industry is classified under three categories of operations, namely:
Primary operation(logging) is made up of about 250 firms. Secondary processing(saw, ply and veneer milling) about 130 firms, and tertiary operations(Furniture parts, mouldings, flooring, Toys etc.) about 65 firms. It is worthy to mention that firms may be involved in more than one area of activity.
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HIGH PRIORITY AREAS
Wood processing has been identified as one of the activities for which the country had comparative advantage in development. There is considerable scope for increasing the value-added content of Ghana’s export through the efficient and complete utilization of the timber resource.
Potential areas for investment include:
Use of wood in housing, furniture, rural culverts and bridges; imported materials are pronounced in the building and furniture industry.
- Establishment of factories that would use wood residue estimated at 30-45% of the harvested timber in Ghana, to satisfy domestic and export demands.
The following industries are of high priority:
Briquette production
Block board manufacture
Particle board manufacture
Finger jointing
Setting up of a facility to produce tools and spares for the wood industry, to reverse heavy dependence on imported tools and spares, even with basic tools.
Setting up of a glue factory for the production of glue using raw materials for the plywood and furniture industries. Glue is a major cost item in the production of plywood, and all plywood factories in the country import all their glue requirements.
Joint venture investments to infuse capital into rehabilitation and modernisation of existing mills are urgently required, as the quality and state of equipment in the secondary processing mills is poor with low recovery rates.
Investment in kilning facilities. An additional estimated kilning capacity of 160,000m3 per year is required is the industry is to meet the export requirement of only kiln dried lumber. Kiln drying would increase the utilisation potential of the Ghana’s lesser-used timbers.
Interest is high in the establishment of plantation timbers. The global concern for the environment has created the desire for individuals and companies to plant trees. The opportunity exists therefore for the creation of nurseries, seed generation and implementation of plantation schemes. In all these areas labour input is high but labour is cheap locally.
A vast potential exists for the furniture and woodworking sector to contribute to export earnings of the country and the Gross Domestic Product(GDP). The Forest Sector Master Plan lays emphasis on furniture and downstream processing. This has strong government support. Investments in furniture production will be most welcome.
CONCLUSION
The timber industry in Ghana has shown improved performance in recent years. This is the result of Government’s Economic Recovery Programme in 1982 under which reforms were introduced and capital injected to revamp the industry.
The results have been the remarkable growth in production, export and consumption of timber and wood products. Domestic consumption of wood production, in particular, points to future increase.
However, primary products still dominate Ghana’s timber exports. A huge potential therefore exists for investment into the downstream processing of timber, especially the tertiary sector.
In addition to the current stable political environment, the Government of Ghana has packaged attractive investment incentives and guarantees. These include generous tax incentives, guaranteed and easy remittance of dividends, profit and fees abroad as provided under the GIPC Act. These are all intended to create a business climate more conducive to attracting foreign investments into the country.
Please, contact any of the following addresses of further information:
Head Office
Timber Export
Development Division
P.O. Box 515
Takoradi
Tel: 233 31 22921/2
Fax: 233 31 23339 |
London Office
Unit 4, Granard Business Centre
Bunns Lane, Mill Hill
London NW7 2DZ
United Kingdom
Tel: 0181 906 9560
Fax: 0181 906 9570
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Accra Office
P.O. Box 10810
Accra North
Tel: 233 21 776 556
Fax: 233 21 773 829 |
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© World INvestment NEws, 1999.
This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Ghana published in Forbes
December 13th 1999 Issue.
Developed by AgenciaE.Tv |
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GHANA
