Market Reforms and the State: the Case of Shea in Ghana

A Major thrust of structural adjustment in Ghana, as elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, is the promotion of the private sector coupled with the diminution of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). 1 However, while these are sometimes undermined, as when shares are sold to private buyers or assets liquidated, their complete demise in the course of market reform is not always so clear cut. This is the case when SOEs are themselves restructured in order to become more market-oriented, or when they are charged with overseeing private sector development. In such a situation, state-based companies may lose a share of the market as they are forced to compete with private firms, while at the same time extending their purview as a regulator of a diversifying economic sector. The parastatals involved in Ghana's shea economy are characterised by this sort of ambivalent status.