The Ghanaian and Entrepreneurial Acumen

By Doreen Hammond 
An announcement on the radio some time ago invited patrons to join a restaurant in celebrating its golden jubilee. This tiny eatery is around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. Then I asked myself, “What is there to celebrate for a restaurant that started in a store room and has remained there for 50 years, with a work force of less than ten”? I would not be surprised if the menu has remained the same over the years in operation.

The above scenario and similar happenings bring to the fore the issue of the Ghanaian’s ability to make it as a businessman or businesswoman. Stories abound in how some of the wealthiest people in the world had to struggle from scratch to create their wealth. Of course, including some Ghanaians. But it seems that gradually, this class of entrepreneurs are getting fewer by the day in Ghana.
 
Take the case of the average Lebanese. He arrives in Ghana or any part of Africa usually without capital and is also disadvantaged by culture and even language. He assists a compatriot in his shop for about a year or two. With the help of the Lebanese community, he sets up his own shop and in a couple of years he is one of the most successful business men in town! Is the Lebanese culture of family networks that mentor the upstart who will not squander the money due to the family honouring the secret? Or what else could it be?

Let’s take the example of the fast food franchise, Papaye, which arrived in the country to meet so many local restaurants but left all of them behind. Today, they have gone beyond Osu in Accra opening branches on the Spintex road, at Tesano in Accra, etc while most of the locally owned restaurants are still marking time!
Melcom is another success story, never mind what they are selling . Azar paint is, Latex foam, Polytank are all examples of such success stories. Palace Shopping mall started on the Spintex road and has expanded to another site with more variety of goods on the same Spintex road transforming where they started off into a Home Decor/ furniture city.

Why must every Ghanaian graduate seek employment with the state? Is the problem in our system of education which tends to train people for white colour jobs instead of hands on practical undertakings? Take a cursory look at the few so-called wealthy people around and you will realise that these are people who have been in government before or have cronies in power. Why can’t the average Ghanaian set up from scratch, come up with innovative ways of providing services that are needed so as to create wealth for himself? Must we always go into what somebody else has already started? So somebody starts a communications centre and in two years, everybody is towing the same line. The length and breadth of the country is inundated with communication centres. Then when that field gets saturated we all move to say car washing, then to pure water manufacturing, the running of taxis and  tro-tro, roasting  plantain and the setting up of hairdressing salons where in no time the workers don’t care if customers walk out very dissatisfied while they pay special attention to only a few favourites they call customers because of tips.
Recently the move has been into the music industry— on television we see many characters presenting themselves to us as musicians by taking a well-known old tune and miserably  affixing their own lyrics to bother our ears and our eyes with their over-dependence on the sea and its  shores for visuals to accompany videos! For them the name of Jesus in the song is bound to sell the song! Is that  how to compose music? How many people buy those CDs? Little wonder they fizzle out in no time just like they came in. And must every rich man be a road or something contractor?

So why can’t the average Ghanaians pool resources and go into joint businesses as is done elsewhere? I think the answer may lie to a large extent in ego, greed and suspicion. Try this and as soon as the business starts to flourish, your partner is already thinking of how to do you in! Our desire to cheat and short change foreigners is legendary. There are stories of people giving brass and broken bottles as gold and diamonds to their foreign partners and in no time what could have matured into a prosperous business venture is nibbed in the bud. Foreigners have sealed business transactions on the Internet and landed in the country with moneys only to be duped!

Of course we cannot also forget our penchant for new wives when business makes some little gains. Some also use their capital to put up huge mansions and eventually collapse their businesses! The keeping of good business records is also a problem. So the businessman, manager, director / boss dips his hands into the business coffers without setting for himself his salaries and allowances and without knowing how much he last took and what is left!

Some businesses are tied so much to their founders that as soon as they die, the business goes with them. Swedru Contractors, Poku Transport , korsah Brothers and Sons and more recently Kasap are a few of such businesses.

The lack of trust culminating in our difficulty to access credit facilities also presents a big hurdle . This lack of trust has evolved from a culture of deception and greed.  There is no training on how to build credit  and most people will poorly manage what is given them on credit with no regard for tomorrow. You talk to Unique Trust and it becomes clear how people use fictitious documents to go for loans without the slightest hope of ever paying!

It is not all despair though as there are still great Ghanaian entrepreneurs that can hold their own against the best anytime anywhere. Names like the Sikkens, Asuma Bandas, Akoko Darkos, Sam Jonahs and Prince Kofi Amoabeng readily stick out. But the fact remains that the Lebanese, Syrians and the Indians are doing better in our own backyard . We must, therefore, look at where the problems are and begin to assert ourself especially in business endeavours which has to do with manufacturing in addition to our car-washing bays and hair-dressing saloons .