Segment #5 Ghana Business Insider: Everything They Told You About Moving to Ghana is WRONG!

Is everything you know about doing business in Ghana completely wrong? Uncover the real challenges and effective strategies for navigating the Ghanaian business environment in our latest episode. Join us as we tackle common issues such as poor work ethics, currency depreciation, and delayed payments. We provide actionable advice on managing your finances, understanding rental dynamics, and the importance of spending time on the ground to grasp cultural nuances and market conditions.

Hear how rising cement prices and sudden rent hikes from landlords can impact your business, and learn why owning property might be a more sustainable long-term solution. Through real-life examples and practical tips, we guide you on how to protect your investments and make informed decisions. Whether you're considering moving to Ghana or already operating a business there, this episode is packed with insights to help you thrive in an unpredictable economic landscape.

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:00

everything you've been told about doing business or moving to Ghana is wrong. I'm going to tell you how you can correct that. So many of you guys they used the beyond the return or the year of return to get you interested in coming to do business in Ghana. Some of the issues that you experience when you move to Ghana are things such as poor work ethics, especially to those of you that are doing business in Ghana Delayed payments if you're working with suppliers sending goods or products to other people, and then we also have the city depreciation. Now, that's a huge deal for anybody that's doing business in Ghana. There's also, of course, the landlord issues. Now, if you have a shop or you have a warehouse, in most cases, if the business starts doing well, then the problems you tend to have is your landlord coming in to say that he either increased the rent massively, which is probably going to force you to move out of the place and find another location, and that's a big problem for many business people. So this is how you do it right. If you're thinking of moving to Ghana, the best thing to do is come to Ghana, spend some time here for at least six months to a year. Understand the people, understand the culture, understand how things work over here and, after you've done that, make a decision as to where you want to have your shop. You want to open your business. At that point you would have done your proof of concept, you would have done your market analysis and understand how business works in Ghana. You can make the decision if you want to build a house or you want to rent a place Now. If you want to build your warehouse by owning the land or you want to build your shop by owning the land Now, in terms of city depreciation, well, how do we deal with that? Unfortunately, that's economic problems and there isn't much control that we have if things like that start happening. But you see, it is not always a good idea to exchange all your foreign currencies in Ghana when you come in Now. This is not the best advice, especially for an economy that we are trying to, you know, grow.

Speaker 0: 1:55

If you're a foreigner that you've come to the country to do business, it is probably a good idea to exchange the money when you need it. If you go around exchanging all the money, you have to keep it at the bank. I'll tell you what you're going to have issues with the depreciation value. A few years ago I exchanged about 5,000 pounds. That was about 28,000 cities. Today 5,000 pounds is just over 85,000 cities. Imagine those. Many years ago I had kept that money at the bank and didn't use it. And I decided to use it today. Definitely you realize that that money will not be worth or will not give me the value of services and products, as you know, I would have had if I changed the 5,000 pounds today.

Speaker 0: 2:35

Let's take, for example, right, cement prices have gone up massively. Of course, after five years if you're renting a shop, then your shop owner is probably going to tell you that they've increased the price of cement, so for that reason they're going to increase your rent and that's not going to be very good for you. That's not going to be very good for business, which is why if you own the property is the best. You know, if you're trying to do the multiple business style, sometimes it can be very challenging because you can't own every property that you do business in, as we do in the west. Right, we rent the properties and if the business starts doing well, you buy. You don't get that many issues. You know we have businesses abroad and we don't get that many issues with landlords increasing rent almost every year or ridiculous amount.

Speaker 0: 3:20

There's one unit that I have that I do business from here. My landlord came in and said that he's going from the amount I pay. He's one unit that I have that I do business from here. My landlord came in and said that he's going from the amount I pay. He's basically multiplied that by three and I have to pay that amount over an entire four year period. That's ridiculous. There are a few things that I worked out Poor work ethics you're going to have that when you move to Ghana.

Speaker 0: 3:39

Delayed payments you're going to have that. There are people who buy products from you. They will use your services, especially as a wholesaler. You're going to have these problems where you send the products and goods to them and they're not paying you on time. They promise to pay you. You're going to have to keep chasing them and chasing them, and chasing them. The way people get around it you know how is they have to pay everybody within the chain. That's not the best way to do it.

Speaker 0: 4:01

Upon everything that I've said, the beauty about doing business in Ghana is that there are so many challenges and if you're truly an entrepreneur. When you come into the country, you find solutions for those problems, which is why I still love doing business in Ghana. I'm happy to embrace those challenges. I'm happy to learn and be part of the problem solvers. Don't just read the title and ignore coming to Ghana to do business. Understand solvers. Don't just read the title and ignore coming to Ghana to do business. Understand that these things exist. I don't want you to come into the country you know blindly. Embrace the challenges and be part of it and help solve our problems. And I hope to see you again in the next segment. I'm out.