Ghana politics - it's more than just fax transmissions

Most of us know what we know about Ghana politics from fax scams. But as I previously noted, the death of President Mills occurred a few months before an election in Ghana.

And the forthcoming election is having business effects:

Ghana’s government put its plan to sell its stake in Agricultural Development Bank Ltd. on hold as leaders of the West African nation focus on their election campaigns, according to the Finance Ministry.

President John Dramani Mahama and his ministers are preparing for the Dec. 7 presidential and parliamentary votes, Yvonne Quansah, acting director of the ministry’s financial sector division, said by phone yesterday from the capital, Accra.

“Because of time constraints, the discussions have been put on hold so that the party that comes to power next year would take it up,” she said.

If it were the United States, the incumbent party would sell the bank stake as soon as possible, before the opposing party could mess the deal up.