Ghana - Economic sectors

In 1995 agriculture (including forestry and fishing) was the largest sector and the biggest employer of the working population. The chief agricultural export is cocoa, and it occupies more than half of the country's cultivated land.

Mining contributes a big proportion of foreign exchange earnings through the export of gold, diamonds, and bauxite (used in the production of aluminum). The

Communications
Country	Newspapers	Radios	TV Sets a	Cable subscribers a	Mobile Phones a	Fax Machines a	Personal Computers a	Internet Hosts b	Internet Users b
	1996	1997	1998	1998	1998	1998	1998	1999	1999
Ghana	14	238	99	N/A	1	N/A	1.6	0.06	20
United States	215	2,146	847	244.3	256	78.4	458.6	1,508.77	74,100
Nigeria	24	223	66	N/A	0	N/A	5.7	0.00	100
Cote d'Ivoire	17	164	70	0.0	6	N/A	3.6	0.25	20
a Data are from International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Development Report 1999 and are per 1,000 people.
b Data are from the Internet Software Consortium ( http://www.isc.org ) and are per 10,000 people.
SOURCE: World Bank. World Development Indicators 2000.

country is among the world's largest producers of manganese. Manufacturing contributed 9 percent of GDP in 1998. However, the economic recovery program of the late 1990s hit the industry through high interest rates and the lifting of restrictions on some imports.

The tourist sector, while so far not rated amongst the main economic sectors, is the fastest growing sector in the economy. The government's main priority is to privatize the state-owned enterprises to relieve government of the heavy burden on national resources. The government, with the help of the IMF, plans to diversify its exports to avoid its vulnerability to the fluctuating prices

of cocoa on the world market. The government also plans to attract more investment to achieve the diversification of exports as well as to meet local needs.