Making charcoal in Tamale. Besides agriculture, stove wood is one of the highest traded products in Northern Ghana. Although most city dwellers have electricity (despite occasional blackouts), about 40% of Ghana households (a majority in the North) cook with wood. Youth are sent into the forests to cut small trees, which are cut in smaller pieces and roasted in barrels to make cooking charcoal. Youths burning scrap tires and wire in Accra sometimes did this before migrating to Accra.