In a continent often painted with stories of meteoric startup success and flashy entrepreneurial wins, Ghanaian business magnate Dr. Daniel McKorley, popularly known as McDan , is calling for a sobering reality check.
“Entrepreneurship in Africa is not a straight road to riches. It’s a survival test,” McDan told a group of young business hopefuls at a recent entrepreneurship roundtable in Accra.
Having spent over three decades building a business empire that spans logistics, aviation, salt mining and more, McDan speaks with the kind of grounded clarity that can only come from experience. His central message? The journey is harder than you think, but not impossible.
No Glamour, Just Grit
Starting a business in Africa isn’t just about pitching ideas and raising capital. “It’s like building a house in an earthquake with a blueprint that keeps changing,” McDan explained. “Everything from poor infrastructure to regulatory uncertainty to market volatility makes entrepreneurship here a daily grind.”
The data backs him up. According to the African Development Bank’s 2025 MSME Report and Afreximbank’s Trade & Economic Outlook, up to 90% of African startups collapse within three years, making survival a more pressing goal than growth.
But McDan argues this high failure rate is often misunderstood. “Most businesses don’t die because the idea was bad,” he said. “They die because it stayed hard for too long.”
Resilience is Currency
While capital, skill, and networks are important, McDan insists the real game-changer is resilience. “The winners aren’t the smartest or richest. They’re the most stubborn. They keep building when others give up.”
This message resonates deeply in a region where entrepreneurs operate without the safety nets available in more developed economies. “There’s no social security in entrepreneurship,” McDan added. “No paid leave, no guaranteed salary, no backup plan. You either push through or you fall.”
The Breakthrough Is Often Just Beyond the Breaking Point
What McDan describes as “the quiet death zone” is a phase nearly every African entrepreneur experiences, that dark, discouraging period where nothing works, revenues dry up, and confidence fades.
“It’s at that moment that many give up, sometimes just before things could have turned around,” he warned. “You’ll think you’ve made a mistake. But staying the course through that pain is what separates the real builders from the rest.”
Keep Building. Keep Adapting. Keep Going.
Far from being cynical, McDan’s message is hopeful, but realistic. “If you survive, you learn. And if you keep learning, you win eventually.”
He encourages entrepreneurs to ditch the ‘overnight success’ myth and embrace Africa’s unpredictability with creativity and grit. “You don’t need to be a genius. You just need to adapt. Every mistake has a lesson. Every problem is an opportunity to reframe your approach.”
Lessons for Ghana’s SME Sector
Ghana’s economic future depends heavily on its small and medium-sized businesses, which account for over 80% of employment, according to the Ghana Statistical Service. Yet, many SMEs still operate without access to structured mentorship or capacity-building support, something McDan believes must change.
“We need more platforms that prepare young entrepreneurs for what this life really is,” he said. “Not just pitch competitions and Instagram photos. Real preparation for real struggles.”
Final Word: The Pride of Building in Africa
For McDan, entrepreneurship in Africa is more than business, it’s a calling. “If you survive, it’s not just money you earn. It’s the pride of building something that matters, right here, on African soil.”
So, to those eyeing the entrepreneurial path: the road is rocky, uncertain, and often brutal. But for those who embrace the chaos and persist, the rewards are not just financial, they’re transformative.
