Spatial Structure and Distribution of Manufacturing Industries in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana

A key driving force and determinant of a country’s worth in the globalized world is inherent in its level of industrialization. Certainly, other dimensions are crucial and come into play, however, the infamous classification of nations into industrialized and non-industrialized has added substantial merit to the concept. Essentially, industrialization in Ghana was based on the premise of the production and processing of its vast natural resources from traditionally primary products to tertiary and finished goods. While the industry can boast of employment generation and a model of economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s, inadequate implementation of industrial policies has resulted in the consistent contraction of the manufacturing subsector. Manufacturing sector contribution to GDP declined from 36.69% in 2000 to 6.7% in 2012 and therefore is considered the weakest link in Ghana’s industrial drive. This paper examines the growth, spatial structure, and distribution of manufacturing industries in the Greater Accra region using districts as the unit of analysis. The Greater Accra region has traditionally been the focal point of Ghana’s industrial development accounting for 23.4% of all manufacturing establishment as of 2015, most of which are concentrated in the Accra and Tema Metropolitan areas due to obvious political, socioeconomic and mobility factors. Examining historical data from 1962–2010, we found that despite the overwhelmingly large localization of manufacturing industries delete in Accra and Tema Metropolitan areas, a relative spatial redistribution of manufacturing industries was evident in the peripheral district of the region. Furthermore, the change in distribution is reflected in the pattern of employment at the district level, which per our findings shows a relative diffusion from the core districts of Accra to districts located in the peripheries. The study also found that industrial policies, such as free trade zone initiative, decentralization policies, foreign investment and improvements in critical infrastructure, have resulted in the relative spatial diffusion of manufacturing industries. These findings are significant because they show how areas without previous manufacturing base have witnessed the emergence of some form of industry.