Integrated Furniture Industry, Fumesua
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Date
1992-09-15
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Abstract
Ghana has a wide stretch of forest (about 30,000 sq miles) containing hardwood timber in large quantities. The timber industry is well established in the country but this is based on substantial quantity of timber logs and semi processed lumber being exported to the United Kingdom and other European countries. The existence of the timber industry serves as a good foundation for the further development of wood-based high value added product industries, joinery products such as doors, windows mouldings and other machined items, sliced veneer, plywood, particle board, rotary veneer, profile boards, balusters, sawn timber, carving, toys, wooden kitchenware, pallets and parquet flooring.
Eight years ago, in an international atmosphere of fragile trade relation marked by falling commodity prices and threats of protectionism, the government set out to lay the foundation for a productive and growing economy in the first phase of an Economic Recovery Programme (ERP). As a strategy, the programme sought to address the problems of balance of payments, and the fiscal, monetary and trade policies. Purposeful attempts were then made to increase the flow of capital into the country and direct these to the priority areas of the economy with the basic objective of rehabilitating the infrastructure to improve conditions for production and provision of goods and social services.
The key aspect of this ERP has been the emphasis on rehabilitation and expansion of the export oriented industries to ensure increasing foreign exchange revenue. Part of the strategy has been to optimise activities in industries using locally available raw materials by applying a substantial portion of the country’s resources to the rehabilitation and development of the timber industry in particular because of its distinct advantage of having a renewable resources base, that is, the forest.
The government’s Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) which was initiated in 1984 is directed towards an increase of value added export using locally available raw materials. In this context, one of the priorities is concerned with the rehabilitation of the existing facilities and the creation of new wood processing facilities. Since then, new equipment and machinery are being imported with a view to manufacturing higher value added products such as furniture and, joinery components for export.
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A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture, 1992