Volta river project : a case study in financial analysis

Abstract

The possibility of damming the Volta river to produce electric power has been under consideration in the former Gold Coast since 1915. The country had no known resources of coal nor oil and the Volta offered the best known prospect of developing an energy resource, right from the beginning, the large size of the power potential in relation to the needs of the country and the known existence of large bauxite resources had pointed to an aluminium industry as the primary market for which the Volta development should be planned. After failures of earlier attempts, by private overseas commercial interests, to develop a power and aluminium complex, the British Colonial Government took an interest in the scheme, as a means of earning dollars for the sterling area during the post-war shortage.