It is that time of the year when people make big plans, or what some call “New Year Resolutions”. The change of government this year makes things even more interesting.
The size of the new government’s victory margin at the polls may suggest that hopes are high for better times.
Yet, there is one thing that has barely changed, a massive number of Ghanaian youth are looking for any chance to leave the country. Many have banked their last hopes on, to use a popular term borrowed from Nigeria, “Japa”!
This Yoruba term that actually translates to “run away” is an apt description of the sheer ferocity of the urge among young Ghanaians to abandon the country of their birth in search of the proverbial “green pastures” abroad. “Abroad” here can sometimes even mean “anywhere but Ghana”.
So crazy is the desperation. Recently, a Ghanaian professional working for a financial institution in Kumasi japa-ed all the way to Ukraine to serve Russia in the warzone because, as friends recounted, he believed it was his only ticket to citizenship in the Eurasian country.
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The latest Afrobarometer survey, conducted in August 2024 and published in December, reveals that 61 percent of Ghanaians have considered leaving the country—a dramatic rise from 41 percent in 2017. Even more concerning, the share of those who have given ‘a lot’ of thought to emigration has more than doubled, from 20 percent in 2017 to 44 percent in 2024.
But who can blame Ghana’s young people. The cost of living crisis has long been with us, but it is getting worse. The unemployment crisis has also always been with us, but it is now far harder to rely on handouts from relatives. The sense of unfairness in the system is an age-old thing, but the feeling that without connection, nothing whatsoever can be done in Ghana is stronger than ever.
Here is the curious thing, though. Many popular Ghanaians who are widely noted for their great wealth couldn’t succeed when they, too, did their japa excursion. Many recount harrowing experiences during their japa episodes.
For this category of successful Ghanaians, returning to Ghana is actually how they eventually found the path to untold riches and social status. In fact, there are numerous examples of individuals who, after facing failure abroad, return to Ghana and surprisingly thrive.
While it’s true that some of those who have emigrated to places like the United States, the United Kingdom, and even parts of the Middle East and Asia, have seen dramatic improvements in their living standards and even amassed considerable wealth, a very sizeable proportion of those who attempt the japa escape fail to achieve their big dreams of wealth, success, and social esteem.
You don’t need to look too hard for evidence of this. With alarming regularity, the media reports of Ghanaians being “stranded” in many countries like Qatar, Libya, the UAE, and elsewhere. Less covered by the media are the deportations from places like the UK, the US, and Canada. Yet, this is just as alarming.
Just a few months ago, over 70 Ghanaians were sent back home in just one flight from the United States. They came back with nothing. Upon arriving at Kotoka, each individual had to be given 100 Ghana Cedis to find their way to relatives. It is said that the largest mass deportations occurred under President Barack Obama and that thousands of Ghanaians were caught in the trap.
Clearly, then, japa is not an automatic guarantee of success. It is as risky as any high-stakes endeavour.
But is there something in the Ghana japa experience that buoys the ambitions of unsuccessful returnees? As indicated above, there is a well-known situation of people who failed at japa, or at the very least failed to realise their dreams abroad, coming back home to become wildly successful.
Take someone like Herman Chinery Hesse (God bless his soul) who said time without number that he saw no chance of success in the United States, where he went to study to become an industrial engineer, or in the United Kingdom, where he initially explored building a career. His explanation was that in the US and UK, his ability to make a difference was heavily limited due not just to the negatives, such as racism and bigotry, but also the seemingly positive factors of abundance. These societies are so developed that finding problems that can be solved profitably becomes extremely hard.
Michael Amankwa, founder of CoreNett; Jonathan Tawiah of OSTEC; Fred Swaniker, who founded the Africa Leadership Group; and several other prominent Ghanaian achievers have said similar things.
Perhaps, Ghana japa opens one’s eyes to capabilities so that, on returning to Ghana, problems start to appear less like daunting frustrations and more like obvious opportunities.
When it comes to returnees finding extreme wealth in Ghana, however, it does appear that those with one leg in politics fare far better. Yes, there are returnee-politicians like Ken Ofori-Atta who built an entire life in business before venturing into politics. But most of the wealthiest returnees seemed to have done things in parallel.
But if meteoric rises are the hallmarks of the phenomenon we are describing, then none beats the Bryan Acheampong saga.
After schooling in the US and trying his hand at a couple of jobs, Bryan found it so hard to make ends meet that in 2005, he had to file for personal bankruptcy. His case went before the legendary Judge Votolato in Rhode Island, who appointed Lisa Geremia, an attorney with a West Warwick practice, to act as Trustee in Bryan’s bankruptcy proceedings.
After discharge from bankruptcy, Bryan entered the US National Guard (Air Force branch), a kind of reserve unit, for four years, during which period he had duty postings for about two months in 2006.
Upon Bryan Acheampong’s return to Ghana in the 2010s, he set up an entity called INTU-Group. In 2014, it won a contract with the Controller & Accountant General’s Department. The mode of procurement was “restricted tender”. Two years later, in 2016, Bryan took over the NPP parliamentary seat at Abetifi in a by-election, following the death of the incumbent.
In less than half a decade from that point onwards, he diversified into multiple industries and announced the construction of the “largest luxury hotel in Africa”. Last year, Bryan stirred massive controversy when it was revealed that he allegedly had the means to buy up all the country’s state-owned high-end hotels.
Even though Bryan’s story is the most epic, there are many returnees who have found that the optimum way to flourish is to have one leg in business and the other in politics.
While the stories of Bryan, and others show that striking gold through Ghana japa is far harder than most think and, conversely, that one can make it big in Ghana, they also raise some worrying questions.
Maybe the reason why people have become desperate to japa is not because there are no opportunities in Ghana but because without connections, it is almost impossible to harness those opportunities.
That may well be true, but Ghana japa (ing) is clearly not the answer, then. After all, many who japa still return and build connections on the ground before hitting the jackpot. Instead of spending years abroad before figuring this out, maybe you can start now. Of course, not everyone can become a top politician, but surely that is not the only path to the connections that matter in building a personal fortune?
