Author name: Dr Maxwell Ampong

19.447 billion metric tonnes and 353.8 million TEU (twenty-foot Equivalent Unit). From January 2020 to April 2021, the volume of cargo that have been through Chinese ports was almost 19.5 billion tonnes. Within the same period, the container throughput stands at over 350 million 20FT container equivalent units. Since the pandemic, China has been recovering faster than many other countries, with their export figures rebounding spectacularly after the first half of 2020. Western countries started buying large volumes of products from China, especially the United States of America. So, huge volumes of shipping containers had to leave Chinese ports. Cargo for ocean freight are transported in metal containers. When these shipping containers are delivered to the port of destination, they usually circle back to the port of loading, albeit many make a few stops along the way when required. When it gets back to the original port, the process repeats itself. That has not been happening. It’s because China is currently shipping way more to the US, Europe and the rest of the world than it is importing. China has been moving a lot of shipping containers to their biggest markets and these containers do not circle back to facilitate other exports. Why? Millions of shipping containers were stranded at many locations around the world when the pandemic started. Congested ports also did not have the needed manpower to process customs procedures in a fast manner. These hampered global container circulation.  Many shipping containers were stranded on Chinese ports as well at the beginning of the pandemic. But theChinese economy rebounded. These shipping containers got emptied and were sent back out due to Western demand for Asian made products. The story is not the same in most parts in the world. A shortage in this instance means shipping containers are congested somewhere, concentrated elsewhere, not repurposed or out of commission. A few months back, Bloomberg reported on a massive backlog of 28 container ships that were waiting to enter just the US ports of Long Beach California and Los Angeles. An additional 16 ships full of containers were expected to arrive over the following three days. A week before that, it was 26 container ships. Reports from officials monitoring marine traffic in San Pedro Bay indicated it was less than the 40 container-vessels backlog peak back in February 2021. Also, back in March 2021, one of the world’s largest container vessels, a 400m-long 200,000-tonne ship called The Ever Given, got stuck in the Suez Canal and frustrated the entire global shipping industry. About 12% of global trade use the canal daily. So it’s understandable how and why it became such a big deal. The Ever Given got stuck after it run aground and wedged sideways across the canal, blocking passage for other ships. There were over 360 ships that were waiting on either sides of the canal to cross during this blockade. This contributed to the current shortage of containers globally. It made worse an already ailing world container circulation. During the second half of 2020, ecommerce traffic exploded all over the world. Amazon profits have soared past 200% since this pandemic begun. China represents a very large volume of suppliers for ecommerce websites and China is currently shipping more to the US and Europe than it is importing. You’d have to also factor in the fact that over the last few decades, there has been a lot of outsourcing to China. So already, China has been exporting massively to many parts of the world. This global container shortage situation has been a problem waiting to happen, only very much exacerbated by the current COVID pandemic. Heavy competition for available containers have sent shipping rates through the roof. The whole situation looks dreadful when you factor in the current limited air freight capacity since the pandemic started. The Airline industry have been dealt a heavy blow with record low number of flights. When there’s increased demand, prices usually rise. With freight rates soaring, and a shortage of shipping containers, coupled with limited air freight capacity, ecommerce companies and their customers suffer. In the West, retail purchasing has shifted to primarily ecommerce because of lockdowns and other COVID-related restrictions. As earlier stated, China is exporting more to the West than vice versa and most of these shipping containers are not circling back. Compared to Q1 2020, freight rates have gone up by as much as 300% from China to the USA. That shipping cost surge must be borne by someone: the consumer. In Ghana, everyone purchases one thing or another that’s imported. Most of our poultry is imported. Most of our rice is imported. When companies suffer added costs yet maintain increased demand, the final bearer of the added cost is none other than yours truly: you. Remember, extra shipping costs must be borne by someone. E-commerce has picked up in Ghana at a fast and impressive pace. The brief lockdown we experienced also accelerated this. Yet, it’s still not mainstream to use an app or a website to order for broiler (frozen chicken product) for cooking. The fact still remains that a large volume of what we consume as citizens are imported. Because China is facing a challenge with container circulation, any country that depends on Chinese exports will be affected. It’s safe to say then that it is why seemingly every country in the world is affected by this inadequate container circulation, including Ghana and where we get our imports. Think electronics; think automobile spare parts; think household items, etc.  What’s happening is that there’s so much cargo waiting to be loaded onto shipping vessels, and the ships are ready, but shipping containers are scarce because of all the above-mentioned.  The higher the demand, the more visible the variance. Here’s an example. Let’s take frozen poultry products. Everybody eats chicken, generally speaking. The sale price of one carton of chicken leg quarters (broiler) has increased from GH¢97 as at two weeks ago, to GH¢115 this week. It looks like it’ll go up a bit next week as well. I know because I checked. All this is because freight rates and other delivery coststo Ghana have gone up just as with other places in the world due to the limited availability of shipping containers. Importers are not carrying these extra

The meteoric rise of Zionfelix, GhKwaku, RonnieIsEverywhere, thousands of Instagram shops and tens of thousands of social media influencers are products of millions of Ghanaians running to the internet when the pandemic started. During the lockdown, the internet was inescapable. The impact of this on retailers in the short term has been divided. Those offering essential items such as food and cleaning products experienced high demand. But non-essential retailers such as those selling clothes and clothing accessories were forced to close stores or experienced a steep decline in sales. A year ago in May 2020, the Communications and Digitalisation Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, shut down certain offices for not adhering to proper COVID protocols. Since then, the Government and other stakeholders have been consistent with their message for retailers to have sufficient hygiene measures in place in stores all over the country. So for me, I expected the focus of the ensuing 12 months to be on clean shopping, contactless technology and improved hygiene measures becoming the norm, especially after witnessing some pretty significant pent-up demand for regular outdoor activities. To a large extent, Ghana did not disappoint. The rise of Zeepay and other local tech companies, twitter choosing Ghana for its first African base, Mobile Money integration everywhere and the steady embrace of venture capitalism all send the right signals. However, within an election year in a developing economy, COVID protocols gets trickier to enforce, plus the pandemic keeps having a toll on the economy. For an industry like that of Fashion, all these mean that customers will remain cautious about buying, whether indoors or outdoors. I think people will continue to be cautious and also value conscious for the time being about anything fashion.  Here’s why. Within the short time that Ghanaians were forced into lockdown, many of us spent more time online buying essential items such as groceries to avoid long lines at the supermarkets and to avoid the possibility of contracting the virus through contact with others. Other companies selling non-essential items, like clothing, also saw an upturn in sales through online channels but this was not enough to mitigate the decline as consumers began prioritizing and limiting their spending in the medium term. Online sales has since continued to grow but to a large extent the focus will remain on essential items. During this pandemic, people have either lost their jobs and there are many that have fears about the future. So don’t let the trending Instagram photos mislead you into thinking that people are not limiting their expenditure. Many brands in Ghana are shifting their focus either solely or more predominantly to e-commerce innovation and these technology advances will make online shopping experiences more exciting. For the local fashion industry, the immediate goal has been to provide competitive prices and a quick, efficient delivery for consumers. Beyond that, they need to think about how best to translate the in-store experience online and provide more forms of convenience such as contactless delivery and curbside pickups. Curbside pickup can be as simple as its name implies: your customers pick up their orders from a convenient location somewhere else other than inside the store, like the literal curb or a warehouse closeby. As innovative as that sounds, I am aware that it won’t be as easy to leave your customers orders on the curb for them to pick up later. But isn’t that why we have these discussions weekly? Is it not to deliberate and brainstorm and talk through our ideas towards creating meaningful change however we can and wherever we find ourselves? It is. And if it’s about trailblazing in fashion, one person I know that’s done that is Susie Bubble. Susanna Lau, also known as Susie Bubble, is a writer and editor living and working in London. Susie started her fashion blog, ‘Style Bubble’ in March 2006, and is now one of the most prolifically read blogs of its type.  Style Bubble consists of Susie’s thoughts, personal experiences and observations on fashion with a focus on spotlighting young and unknown talent. Previously, Susie was editor of Dazed Digital, the website of Dazed & Confused magazine, from 2008-2010.  She now works full-time on freelance content creation for brands such as Prada and Gucci and also writes regularly for publications such as Elle, Grazia and Guardian. She also sits on the experts panel for the LVMH Prize. Recently she has been actively involved in the #StopAsianHate campaign, getting involved with spreading awareness online together with other prominent Asian American designers and fashion professionals. She is currently working on a project to support ESEA women in the UK. During the lockdown, she has also co-founded a bubble tea and bubble waffle shop called Dot Dot in Stoke Newington in North London to explore her Hong Kong roots. The following is authored by Susie Bubble. ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ On how important one’s fashion is to entrepreneurial success. My own style has been pretty important to establishing both my USP in writing and I guess in terms of personal branding projects. I love young designers and experimental design and I’m not scared of colour and print. I think my style is open-minded and that in turn translates to the projects I do and the type of writing I do for publications. I’ve always wanted to promote fashion as a medium for self-expression on your own terms – not to please other people – but to please yourself! On where one can find and follow trending business wear. I don’t have a prescriptive notion of “business wear”. Those days of dress codes are definitely eroding and particularly post pandemic. I think it’s more important to feel comfortable in your own style and skin, whatever that may be. I feel most “powerful” when I’m wearing things that feel the most me – vintage Comme des Garcons pieces, Simone Rocha or Molly Goddard dresses. They’re not typical business attire but that’s the beauty of working for yourself – there is no dress code! On giving some tips on how to

Venture Capitalism is a wonderful thing, if you know how it works and how to get in safely. By the time you finish reading this, you should have just enough information to be a pocket venture capitalist right here in Accra, Ghana. This is the same information that makes so much money for Mark Cuban, Goldman Sachs, the many rich people of Wall Street, and soon, you. The reality is that, in the good old days, the rest of us could wait for a tech company to go public before we buy and own a piece of it. Back then, companies went public relatively very early. Microsoft went public not when it was valued at a billion dollars. Oracle went public not when it was valued at a billion dollars; same for Apple, and Amazon. If you bought those stocks back in those early days, and you held them till now, you’d be a multi-millionaire by now, maybe even a billionaire.  The problem is that these days, there are many valuable companies that have great prospects and easily demonstrate that they are the next trillion dollar businesses in the near future. But you and I are not invited to invest when it really counts. It’s not open to the public until the big guys get the most out of it, then they say “oh hey come buy shares in this company and hope things go well”. A venture capital is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth. Private equity financing means you’re giving the startup money in exchange for ownership shares. Everybody knew very early that Uber was a game-changer. I wish I bought into Uber when it was only a few years old. Uber waited from 2009 when it was worth about $5M, till it was worth over $76 billion in 2019 before going public. Since then it’s stock has moved from just over $40 per share, to just under $60 per share. That’s not exciting at all. THE REAL MONEY WAS MADE BY THOSE WHO BOUGHT INTO UBER WAY EARLY BEFORE THE COMPANY WENT PUBLIC. THE BIGGEST VALUE IS IN EARLY STAGES OF THE JOURNEY, NOT 10, 20, 30 YEARS AFTER. That is why I advocate for increased venture capitalism activity in Accra. Because there really is a simple way so that you and I and the regular working guy can create or buy into private companies the way that the big boys and the big girls do, before they go public. How do you get started? Let’s get very basic. HOW TO IDENTIFY A STARTUP We toss around this this term a lot, but it’s really important to understand how a startup differs from a publicly traded company since venture capitalism targets startups to invest in. I have three main ways to rank startups: the business model, the scale, and the ownership structure. The Business Model: Don’t think of this as the actual business model that the startup has. It’s if there is a business model that’s already been established, fairly tested and that is ready to scale, but hasn’t been scaled yet.  A publicly traded company already has a business model that is working to some relatively high level of capacity and now in a public market. In fact that is why the company is now in the public market: to raise funds to scale the more. Unlike a startup, a publicly traded company has already solved a bunch of their major problems and now they’re looking to take it to the next level. A startup on the other hand, hasn’t really figured that out yet.  A startup is still looking for that repeatable and scalable business model, and so when you invest, you might be investing in the potential of a future business model that hasn’t really been proven out yet. Imagine investing in Uber before the company tested out and confirmed that the same model used in San Francisco, California can work in Ashale Botwe, around Madina. The Scale: Scale is really the size and the amount of impact that this company is already having. Think of ‘impact’ as from the perspective of impact on the world, or financial impact.  It is very common for a startup to make zero revenue; we call that a pre-revenue company, meaning it has yet to make any sales. Or, a startup might make a little bit of cash in a month but the size of “little bit of cash” depends on what they do. Point is, for their sector, its considered little. On the other hand, a publicly traded company is often times doing hundreds of millions, maybe billions in revenue or profit, just per quarter. So the scale we’re talking about is several orders of magnitude difference. It means a repeatable business model has already been found, and it’s really being put to work and that’s why it’s really showing in the scale. The Ownership Structure: Another core difference when it comes to investing is the ownership structure. So when you’re investing in a publicly traded company, the company is by definition “public”. In other words, when you invest in a publicly traded company like MTN, you are trading stocks and actually becoming a part owner. You also have the ability to transfer this ownership in a public market.  The ownership structure in a startup is private. In other words, only the founders or a few investors have control. And you can’t easily transfer shares in a startup company on a public forum like you can in a publicly traded company. WHY YOU SHOULD INVEST IN STARTUP COMPANIES To support the vision of company: Again, using Uber as an example, as an early investor some 10 years ago, you would have had the bragging rights as being one of the few to have spotted the great vision and contributed with your hard earned cedis, or dollars. You can’t really say that now if