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INTRODUCTION
The Volta region has many business potentials which remain
untapped. The most important of these are in Agriculture and
Tourism which are key sectors capable of providing more
employment and income for the people.
Information of the region
shows that the private informal sector provides about 82.9
per cent of all employment and the private formal, 10.4 per
cent. Thus, the private sector alone absorbs 93.3 per cent
of people on the labor market. The public sector accounts
for only 6.1 per cent with the semi-public/parastatal
providing 0.2 per cent of jobs in the region. This
underscores the crucial importance of the private sector in
the economy of the region. The private sector constitutes
the key to economic growth and associated developments in
the region and provides avenues for involvement of more
people in economic and work activities, particularly the
more vulnerable groups in society, irrespective of their
formal educational background. The largely informal nature
of operation of the private sector in the region, as it is
in the country as a whole, however is an obstacle for
effective support by Government and other institutions. Thus
the private sector does not fully benefit the Government in
revenue mobilization and the workers in the sector, in terms
of health, income and welfare.
A survey conducted by the Association of
Ghana Industries in 2008 indicated that the Volta region
placed either last or second to last in a number of the
indicators studied; from technology usage to enabling
business climate. On the whole the Volta region is the least
in terms of the ease of doing business in Ghana. In spite of
this, the region has some remarkable performance indicators:
it was placed fourth in terms of industrial output and VAT
receipt. This shows that the region has a higher potential
to support viable business development if the main issues
that are bottlenecks are improved. This calls for the need
to change some of the trends to improve the future of the
business practitioners and create benefit for others by
bringing about the needed employment and increasing income
and production capacity of the sectors.
It is against this
background that on the initiative of SNV Ghana’s Eastern
Portfolio team based in Ho local
government institutions, traditional councils, private
sector businesses and other non-profit organizations are
working to organize a Trade and Investment Fair in
the Volta region. This would
serve as a forum to create the needed opportunity for the
private sector, bring to bear investment opportunities in
all sectors and attract investment to the Volta region.
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