The Swede who is being hailed in Ghana

It is 8 o'clock on a Friday morning and Mats Karlsson, dressed in an airy white African shirt, enters the studios of JoyFM in Ghana's capital Accra. The subject for today's live broadcast: Ghana's successful economic development. As regional chief for the World Bank in West Africa, Mats Karlsson is often the official spokesman for Ghana's growing economy.

Inside the dull studio of the station, he sits besides Kwame Pianim, head of the country's price regulation authority, for a discussion on Ghana's economy.

The listeners ring in their questions, comments and gratitude to Mats Karlsson for accepting the culture in which he found himself and always dressing in traditional African clothes.

'We must do away with all our low expectations', he tells a listener and compares Ghana with Malaysia, South Africa, and Chile – whose economies, within a short time, have reached unbelievable heights because of the countries' natural resources.

Sitting beside him, Kwame Pianin, who newly described the present state of Ghana's development as the "golden age of business", agrees with Mats Karlsson's desire to raise Ghana's expectations of itself. 'Just look at how Malaysia has transformed its economy; now they are flying with the eagles. We can also fly there, it is time we stop running around with the chickens,' says Kwame Pianim.

Five years ago, Mats Karlsson left Washington to become responsible for the World Bank's activities in six West African countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana), with his base in Accra.

Ghana, which Mats Karlsson came to work with most, was a country fighting its way out of an economic crisis with huge budget deficits. Growth was below 4 per cent. Today the country has passed the 6 percent mark, at the same time as poverty has been considerably reduced. Ghana is no longer the poor country that Karlsson had studied from Washington.

In the beginning of the 90s, when the UN's millennium goals were being formulated, more than half of Ghana's population lived under the poverty line. Next year, says Karlsson, Ghana will become the first African country to reach the goal of reducing poverty by half.

'I worked with the millennium goals from the USA but felt that I must be here to work practically towards the goasl. During my five years here, one million Ghanaians have been lifted out of poverty', says Mats Karlsson when we got a lift from the radio station to the offices of the World Bank.

The day before, I met Dr William Ahadzié, lecturer at the University of Ghana and a social commentator who spoke at a conference on the developments in the country.

'Ghana has gone from instability to stability and has now reached the stage for growth. Moreover, we have reduced poverty', says Ahadzie. Today, Ghana's per capita income lies between 500 and 600 dollars per annum but William Ahadzie is convinced that the country can reach the 1000 dollar mark within four years. This will be a doubling of the average income.

How will Ghana get there?

'It will involve the transformation of agriculture to a more modern and effective one. But it will also require more access to credit for small business as well as the investment of home grown and foreign venture capital in Ghana. Since capital is often moved around stable economies, Ghana can also count on receiving some of that capital,' says Wiliam Ahadzie.

The problem, according to William Ahadzie, is that the country's growth is not evenly distributed. Ghana's 20 percent richest get even richer while 80 per cent of the people are not seeing much of the increased growth. But William Ahadzie is hopeful and thinks that if only the money is there in Ghana, it will benefit all with the increase in micro finance.

'We have now seen the problems and the government is initiating a large micro finance program,' he adds.

The World Bank's Mats Karlsson states that one of the reasons for Ghana's increased growth is that aid money has been well invested. Today, international aid accounts for 10 per cent of the country's GNP, with a third of the aid coming from the World Bank.

'In the past, donors and the government have not always chosen the same things. Today, we can discuss from a common base which makes it possible for us to influence how the money is used and also influence the country's entire budget,' says Mats Karlsson.

What is it that makes just Ghana a country with such huge potential?

'Ghana is an independent country with great confidence in itself. There is a strong and open debate with free media. Traditional society has been maintained with an insistence on understanding at the same time as the country has benefited a lot from foreign based Ghanaians in its drive to modernity. Violence is hated here and there is respect for law. I think these have also contributed to Ghana's strength.'

We step out of the air-conditioned car and are ushered through a few meters of 34 degrees heat before entering the offices of the World Bank.

Mats Karlsson leads us immediately to a big conference hall filled with school children and, 15 seconds later, stands at a podium and turns to the children all of whom are taking part in the environmental project 'Kids Against Waste'. He tells them they have the possibility to influence their country, to make a difference and leaves the podium to great applause. Two floors up, in Mats Karlsson's office, we sit down among a large stack of documents and business cards which have followed him since the years in Washington.

'This is the most interesting job I've ever had,' is the first thing Mats Karlsson says before ringing the ministry of finance to arrange for 'two Swedish journalists' to follow him and meet the president at 12 o'clock.

That the fully packed days in Accra will soon be over and Mats Karlsson must hand over to his successor is something he says with some sadness. A few weeks later, one could read in the Ghanaian daily, Spectator, how reluctant Mats Karlsson was to leave Ghana but that he was leaving it at a time the country can at last stand on its own legs, a fact which can seem to contradict the World Bank's increased investments in Ghana.

Even though the country's economy has become stronger and welfare is accelerating, the World Bank's economic support to Ghana has been nearly doubled during Mats Karlsson's five years as director.

Why does a country which is in less need of aid get more aid?

'It is just exactly for that reason,' says Mats Karlsson. 'When a country becomes more stable, when it is 'managing itself well' and sees to it that poverty is reduced then it meets the conditions from our side to get more money'.

Of course the past five years have not been one long history of sunshine. The growing energy crisis, for example, is a big problem for Ghana. That the price of oil has quadrupled since he moved to Ghana has hampered growth, he says. The floods that affected the country have been very trying for the people and the country's leaders. And yet the positive developments have surpassed all these, according to Mats Karlsson.

'Ghana is rich in gold, cocoa, mango and pineapples. And it has a strong fishing industry. If one exploits all these natural resources well, Ghana has all the conditions to become a successful country.'

It is getting to 12 o'clock, and Mats Karlsson's private chauffeur drives us to the president's palace. We sit down in a waiting room. Two men in colourful shirts enter and introduce themselves as the health and finance ministers respectively and a little later, we are shown into President Kufuor's majestic office furnished with oxblood leather sofas and, near the desk, a 42 inch flat tv showing a soundless football match.

Mats Karlsson sits near Kufuor to take an informal farewell. 'Ghana is on the way up', says President Kufuor and turning to Mats Karlsson adds, 'You have done well and the World Bank can count on the government's continued cooperation.'

Johan Åkesson

Translated by Kofi Sapathy
The original article appeared in the online and print editions of Dagens Nyheter on Saturday, December 1st, 2007
Click here to read the original in Swedish