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Assignment: Oil City Takoradi

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10/03/2011

Oil City Takoradi

BBC World Service - Assignment, Oil City Takoradi

The port city of Takoradi is being transformed by Ghana's new oil industry

What happens when you take a rundown African city and introduce a brand new oil industry worth billions of dollars? Rob Walker reports from Takoradi in Ghana on the impact oil is having.

In December, Ghana turned on the taps and joined the ranks of Africa's oil producers. 

Production is expected to top 100,000 barrels a day this year - enough, the government believes, to double the country’s rate of economic growth. 

At the centre of this oil rush is the once-sleepy city of Takoradi. 

Already things are starting to change here: new businesses setting up to service the offshore oil industry, an increase in population, and, spiralling expectations. But can Ghana - one of the most stable countries in Africa - escape the curse of instability and corruption that has afflicted other big oil producers on the continent? 

In Assignment Rob Walker visits Takoradi to find out.

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