Fases De Evaluación De Control Interno

business activities of urban actors

Samuel is a trader in second hand car parts. He operates from a store in the area of Abose Okai where many such stores exist. To make himself heard during our interview he has to shout above the noise of the other sellers announcing the car brands of the spare parts they sell to cars slowly passing by. Samuel imports his spare parts from Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands and travels there a number of times per year to buy new ‘stock’. When we ask him about the role of migrants in the economy of Accra, he states: “Why people respect migrants is because they have a knowledge which leads them to have a different behaviour. People ask if they got an education when they were over there [overseas]. They ask because migrants show that they know how to manage their money and use it wisely. Investing wisely, he adds, means that it is best to invest in Accra”. (Interview, 2 December 2002). Clifford, another migrant who had returned to Accra to establish and operate a second hand goods business, puts it like this: “The economy of Accra is running! It is more interesting to invest in Accra than somewhere else. This goes for both big and small businesses; it goes for someone setting up a garage and for the shoeshine boys.” (Interview, 2 December 2002).

Introduction

Many of the small businesses that can be seen around Accra today have visible links with foreign places, sometimes in their names, but more often in the products they sell and the services they offer. These businesses range widely, from second hand goods such as cars, fridges and clothes, to new Italian floor

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tiles, and fashion items, and internet services. Beyond these businesses with clearly visible links with abroad, there are many others either initiated or sup- ported by migrants.

It is generally acknowledged in remittance studies that much of the flow of remittances to the country of origin, whether channelled through formal or informal avenues, is meant for businesses (see De Haas 2003 for Morocco; Hamann 2000 on Mexico). For Ghana, Mazzucato, Van der Boom & Nsowah- Nuamah (2005) have calculated that with respect to their research population of Ghanaian migrants in Amsterdam, twenty eight per cent of all remittances were invested in businesses in Ghana, mainly in Accra and Kumasi. According to Asiedu (2005) and Diko & Tipple (1992), particularly unskilled Ghanaians migrate abroad primarily to save capital in order to invest in houses and businesses in Ghana, since opportunities to accumulate such funds in Ghana are limited. Asiedu (2005) goes on to claim that a direct relationship exists between the duration of the stay abroad of migrants and their ability to accumulate enough savings for housing and business projects in Ghana.

The contribution of remittances to the local economy through business investments is increasingly recognized and welcomed, as these remittances are regarded to be ‘production’ oriented. At the same time there is much debate whether businesses incentives constitute the most optimal and desirable form of migrants’ support for local development. Criticism relates particularly to the bias of migrants towards investments in the urban economy (particularly Accra) and within the urban economy to their preference for the trade and service sectors rather than for sectors which stronger links to raw materials, and particularly agriculture, produced in other sectors within Ghana. These are important issues for scholars of the migration-development nexus.

In this chapter we wish to move on from the more generalist approach of the economic impact of migrants on local economies and explore how these trans- national investments have come about, that is, how institutions guide trans- national business incentives, and what capacities, roles and interests local actors have in becoming involved in these transnational investments. For some actors their involvement can be easily explained as relating to the direct benefits these incentives mean for them. For others these effects may be much less obvious, notably when they are of an indirect nature. This, for instance, may be the case when respondent involvement in transnational business investments helps to secure the support of migrants in other domains. Thus, urban actors may regard their participation in transnational business projects as an opportunity to improve their social security

By taking an explorative approach in our examination of the role of trans- national ties in urban actors’ business activities, we can capture the social-

125 economic significance of transnational ties for urban actors. In addition, this can also provide us with better insights whether these relationships derive from institutions related to common ethnicity, kinship or rural origin, or rather from institutions with a strong link to an urban, possibly even foreign, context. Hence, it becomes important to examine the institutional context in which business related transactions are embedded.

Layout of the remainder of this chapter

In the next section we discuss in more detail migrant influence on business activities in Accra, relating this to policy and economic changes in Ghana, particularly those that resulted from the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) as these had a significant effect on migrant investments in Ghana. In the section following we discuss the significance of entrepreneurial activity and in subsequent sections we turn to an analysis of our own empirical data. In the last section of this chapter we summarize this chapter’s findings and draw con- clusions concerning the involvement of migrants on the urban economy of Accra through business investments.

Ghana’s economy and transnational influences on Accra’s business