Daily Record UK -- GHANA is regarded as one of Africa's most stable countries and has seen one of the fastest rates of poverty reduction in Africa in recent years.

But many people living there dream of better lifestyles in Europe and America.

The average wage is less than £300 a year, meaning a move to the UK could dramatically improve a Ghanaian's financial situation.

Men looking for British wives would often fund the scam by using crime money and dealing with crooks already established in the UK.

Others end up in the UK to study medicine and other subjects and their entire families will club together to raise the cash for a bogus bride.

After gaining UK citizenship, the groom would be expected to send back a large chunk of his earnings to the family.

Ghana has roughly twice the per capita output of the poorest countries in West Africa.

But it is also plagued by AIDS - in 2006, 3.2 per cent of the population were HIV-positive.

Sanitation and drainage are both generally very poor and many illnesses flourish due to poor screening programmes.

The result is an increasing exodus of young people to universities in Europe.