Poverty in Ghana is prevalently rural. Seventy per cent of the country’s poor people live in rural areas, where they have limited access to basic social services, safe water, all-year roads, electricity and telephone services. The incidence of poverty is highest in the northern parts of the country (IFAD). Ghana’s economy, since the early 1990s, has been characterized by high rates of inflation, high interest rates, continuous depreciation of the cedi, dwindling foreign reserves, excessive public debt overhang and stagnant economic growth. Extensive liberalization and adjustment in the 1980s produced some growth in services and mining but did little to produce and sustain growth in agriculture and manufacturing. As a result, both growth and incomes have remained stagnant. The stagnant growth of the economy in the 1990s has produced less than acceptable levels of poverty reduction (Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy 2003-5).