Crystal Lake Fisheries—I

A Ghanian, who was educated in and worked as a financial professional in the UK, chose to return to Ghana to create businesses that would add value, create employment, and bring about positive changes in Ghana’s rural economy. Large-scale aquaculture was uncommon in Ghana; no one had successfully established cage culture in the Volta Lake, the largest artificial reservoir in the world. Because it would be pioneering, her consultants advised that her venture should run a vertical operation to avoid bottlenecks—she too wanted to focus on producing fingerlings, the seed for the industry, to spur the growth of aquaculture in Ghana—and that she should have skin in the game by investing her own funds to assure investors. A local bank offered to lend all the money she needs at 30%. She was evaluating her risks: of beginning with the consultant-recommended 3,000 ton capacity while she felt comfortable scaling up gradually and of input costs deviating substantially from the levels assumed. The case has the information needed to help her with her decisions.