In the world of investment, there is no free lunch; investors are not ‘Father Christmas’ who give away freebies. Except for philanthropists, any investor who puts their money into a country expects a return on investment. However, regardless of the potential return, before anyone decides to invest in a country, they look at certain economic and developmental indicators. Without those indicators, they wouldn’t invest. They also look at the quality of leadership, their posture, and policies to predict the potential outcome of the investment. And I’ll provide some practical examples…
In 2019, I brought a German family worth over $20 billion to Ghana, as I was dating one of their daughters. After touring the prime tourist areas, they were unimpressed. They visited the Adomi Bridge, which they dismissed as a “toy,” feeling it wasn’t worthy of a tourist site compared to more advanced bridges they had seen elsewhere. They also expressed frustration with our roads; despite using a Land Cruiser, they felt driving in our cities was like navigating through a jungle due to potholes and poor road conditions. I tried to persuade them to invest in Ghana, but they refused, citing unsuitable developmental and economic indicators.
In 2019, I visited the Rolls-Royce assembly plant in Singapore after being shortlisted for a job. While there, I spoke with the then-CEO and pitched the idea of bringing an assembly plant to Ghana, highlighting cheap labor and more population as an incentive. I was surprised when he told me that Ghanaians lack the purchasing power for their products since most Ghanaians are poor. He explained that despite Singapore’s high labor costs, the assembly plant is there because Singaporeans can afford new cars, especially since used cars are banned there. In contrast, due to poor government policies over the years, Ghanaians tend to prefer second-hand cars, and sinking trillions of dollars in Ghana without a ready market would be a bad idea. I was shy because he didn’t think highly of my country.
In 2020, while running for MP, a late Russian oil and gas mogul told me, “Richard, if you win, I’ll bring my team to invest $10 billion in your country’s oil and gas sector.” His Australian medical specialist friend who owns a hospital and is sitting on millions of dollars said to me, “If you win, I’ll fix all the roads in your constituency.” When I asked why they wouldn’t do it regardless of my win, he replied,” We invest in leaders with brains, not unethical ones who waste taxpayers’ money on opulence.” I tried to convince him that would invest in Ghana by saying, “Oh! Doc, the leaders have brains,” but he shot back, “It doesn’t look like that.” This stands to reason that investors are concerned about the quality of leadership; if they don’t trust the leadership as having the brains to make the right decisions that would promote sustainable development, they won’t put in the investment.
If you see any investors putting money into a corrupt country or one lacking proper economic and developmental indicators, they’re not genuine investors. Many people our leaders label as investors in Ghana are scams, especially within some of the Chinese community. They exploit our weak leadership. I’ve read some agreements between the Ghanaian government and these so-called investors, and I can tell you that most are shambolic. Real investors want your country to thrive and develop quickly because that ensures a future for their investments. They don’t want your people to be poor, as the prosperity of the populace means their businesses will succeed.
