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157 appendix Data Collection Much OF the data for this book are based on two survey efforts. First, a large foreign company/corporate survey conducted September to December 1999, and a related and subsequent domestic company survey in February 2000. Second, a household residential survey conducted in summer 2004. The research also draws on a number of data produced by various agencies in Ghana; for example, The Bank of Ghana, GIPC, and the GSS. In addition, I conducted numerous interviews with key agents in the urban economy such as government officials, NGO representatives, and real estate agents. The first survey effort entailed a large foreign company survey. This survey was essential because data on foreign corporate activity in African cities are generally scarce and incomplete. Internationally monitored datasets (e.g., Dun & Bradstreet 1997; United Nations Center on Transnational Corporations 1988) provide directories on foreign companies and their affiliates abroad, but they contain information only on the largest multinational corporations in the world. In addition, these data are biased toward companies from the OECD (with the largest assets), are often out of date, and greatly underestimate the extent of foreign corporate activity in Africa. Locally generated datasets also inadequately represent information on foreign companies. Prior to this research, there were no directories of foreign companies in Accra that were accurate or even remotely complete. Government agencies that monitor foreign investment can provide information on foreign companies, but their information relates to approved investments or collaborations, not to currently active companies. GIPC provided me with a listing of companies that had newly registered at its office. In the early days, the GIPC noted that 26 percent of all companies that have registered are not functionally operating and that some foreign companies choose not to register with the GIPC (even though they are required to by law) (Grant 2001), but GIPC data is now much more accurate. Therefore, the GIPC listing is only an estimate and cannot be taken to represent accurately the population of foreign companies in Accra. 158 | a ppendix Defining a foreign company is no easy task, but a foreign company is defined under the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act, 1994 (Act 478) as a company with FDI of over $10,000 for a joint-venture partnership in any sector except trading where the minimum capital requirement is US$300,000. Wholly foreign owned companies are companies with a minimum of US$50,000. The very liberal investment climate in Ghana since the early 1980s permits foreign investors to own up to 100 percent equity in companies. The data collection on foreign corporations consisted of three steps, implemented over two years: 1. the identification and mining of all available listings of foreign companies and their addresses from local sources; 2. the combination of these listings and checking for overlaps and inconsistencies to create a single master list of foreign companies and addresses; and 3. the conducting of a survey among these companies using the “total design method” (Dillman 1978). The datasets pertain to the headquarters of each company, but the “location” of a company may not be confined to the address of the headquarters. Many of the larger companies have their headquarters and managerial staff in a prime business area although administrative support work and factories are located elsewhere in the city or beyond. I contacted all government organizations working closely with foreign companies for information. Organizations besides the GIPC that provided me with detailed information include the Divestiture Implementation Committee, the Minerals Commission, and the Ghana Free Zone Board, the Ghana Stock Exchange, and the embassies or consulates of the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, the United States, Japan, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, France, China, and Lebanon. The lists were cross-checked for accuracy with existing business directories in Accra, including the Ghana Telephone Directory (1998) and the FIT Business Directory (1999). The resulting master list formed the basis for the survey, which allowed a final round of corrections. Eventually, a database of 655 foreign companies was constructed . The foreign company surveys focused on company names, addresses, year of establishment, type of activity, economic sector, country of origin, company size, etc. To increase the possibility of response, the surveys were returned to a mailbox I established in Accra. The initial mail surveys were followed up by a second round of mail surveys and then by phone calls to increase response rates even further. The final response rate was around 51 percent. A related domestic company survey was also administered. Existing data...

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