The government repeatedly has said it would like Ghana to become a middle-income nation by the year 2020. The World Bank estimates that, at this rate, Ghana will not reach its target until 2045. A tour of the Ghanaian countryside makes clear one large reason that world capital flows have bypassed this nation. Before foreigners can be drawn to invest, governments must make basic investments in infrastructure, such as roads and electricity, and in people, through health and education. The vibrant village is a place where some residents plant rows of red and pink flowers around their squat concrete houses.
Teenagers play furious games of table tennis in the village center.
A blur of rickety shops does heavy business seven days a week. Asene, with about about 1,000 residents, is blessed with some of Ghana's richest soil and is among its leading producers of cocoa. Nana Ako Frimpong II, the village chief, desperately wants investment in Asene. Investment in Asene would allow villagers to finish the health clinic they have labored to build for the past five years. The current facility is a cramped, one-room building used only as a maternity clinic.