Whether loved or disliked, Ghana’s top entrepreneurs are the country’s strongest shot and the best bet for a real economic transformation.
This is an unapologetic reminder by CDD-Ghana Fellow and former Senior Vice President of New York City Economic Development Corporation, Dr. Hene Aku Kwapong.
Dr. Kwapong made this strong case in a striking comparison between South Korea’s and Ghana’s development journey. Dr. Kwapong argues that no nation begins its industrialization with a perfect set of entrepreneurs.
He notes that South Korea, now admired globally, didn’t start with polished technocrats or flawless business icons. It began with small-time traders, scrap-metal dealers, shop owners, and struggling family businesses.
He emphasizes that the country’s leaders simply took the entrepreneurs and deliberately pushed them to scale up, expand, diversify, and become multinational businesses. He cites that this was how South Korean giants such as Samsung, Hyundai, LG, and others were born.
Putting the spotlight on Ghana’s situation, which he argues is no different from South Korea, where there are local businesses and entrepreneurs trying to build businesses despite the harsh realities.
However, he observes that the country often treats its own business giants with suspicion rather than strategic support.
The CDD Fellow points to names like Ibrahim Mahama, Daniel McKorley, Ernest Ofori Sarpong, Akuamua Boateng, Osei Kwame Despite, Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Edmund Poku, and Mike Thakwani. These are individuals he believes have built some of the country’s most visible and impactful companies, often in extremely difficult conditions.
He admits that they are not universally loved. Some are controversial. Others face constant public scrutiny. But to Dr. Kwapong, that is entirely beside the point.
“They are, in economic terms, Ghana’s surviving capitalist class prototypes. They are the few who have navigated a hostile business environment and still emerged with operational capacity, managerial depth, and strategic ambition. You may dislike them. But they are the pieces of the chessboard Ghana actually possesses,” he emphasized.
He stresses that these are the few who have proven they can grow businesses in a system where scaling is notoriously difficult, adding that in today’s global economy, it is scale that creates jobs, drives exports, builds competitiveness, and anchors industries.
Dr. Kwapong warns that Ghana cannot industrialize by wishing for a ‘cleaner’ or more ‘acceptable’ class of big businesses. No country gets that luxury. Nations build with the entrepreneurs they have, even those considered controversial, and shape them into national assets through policy, oversight, and deliberate partnership.
For him, Ghana can either choose to empower its indigenous business giants by pushing them to diversify, expand, and dominate the export market, or continue recycling the same old frustrations about the economy not growing fast enough.
