The most important of the latter is cocoa, of which Ghana is one of the world's major producers. Coffee and various fruit are the other main crops. Fishing has grown in importance since the acquisition of modern vessels. Although recent mineral exploration failed to discover anticipated oil and gas deposits, new bauxite and manganese deposits have been identified.
Manufacturing is concentrated in food processing, textiles, vehicles and chemicals.
The country's energy needs are met by hydroelectric projects, and produce a surplus which Ghana sells to its neighbours. Economic development has been hampered for much of the last two decades by persistently low world commodity prices. But in the late 1980s, Ghana was one of the first countries to undertake an IMF-sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme, involving measures to liberalise the economy, remove trade barriers, privatise industry and maintain firm budgetary control. Although the general population has received little by way of tangible benefits, the programme has been judged a success by virtue of a series of healthy economic indicators throughout the 1990s. Ghana has since been regularly cited as an example of how Structural Adjustment can help a developing economy, although similar programmes elsewhere have achieved markedly less success.