General

The question seems simple, perhaps even rhetorical on the surface. But there’s a reason I write these articles. They reflect different snippets of my discoveries and realisations as I draw from my experience across agriculture, logistics, technology, and community empowerment. Some things become clearer, and some questions highlight our stark reality.  From my perspective, Ghana’s village economy, and indeed much of rural Africa, has been quietly losing value. Although a lot of effort has been made to improve the situation, it is what it is. Rich lands, vibrant labour, unique cultures, and abundant produce generate wealth, yet strangely, little of this wealth stays in the villages. A Quiet Transfer of Power and Wealth Consider a typical rural district in Ghana today. It has active markets, fertile soil, and resourceful people. Yet, fundamental questions don’t get immediate answers. Who really sets the prices for produce? Who owns the storage facilities? Who builds and manages the roads and sets toll charges? Who supplies fertilisers and controls the flow of credit? Yes yes yes Google has some answers but hang in there with me. The average smallholder typically does not own processing facilities. Local mills, if they exist, are usually externally owned and extract value from the villages. Does local processing infrastructure also benefit the community? Yes. But did I lie? No. Inputs such as fertilisers, improved seeds, and technical advice often come from companies based far away in cities like Accra or Kumasi, just like my own company I admit. Village shops frequently stock imported goods distributed by foreign-owned enterprises, imposing non-negotiable markups on local consumers. Even mobile money kiosks, symbols of modern commerce, sometimes operate on behalf of absentee urban owners. Consequently, wealth leaks outward, transaction after transaction, diminishing local economic power. Decisions are remote, profits externalised, and when crises hit, assistance rarely arrives. We’ve seen this happen many times. Examining this flow reveals deeper systemic issues of economic control, centralisation of decision-making, and disproportionate risk allocation. The Myth of Local Empowerment At numerous forums, “empowerment” is frequently mentioned, yet tangible empowerment remains hard to achieve. Ghana’s agricultural policies, although well-meaning, often focus narrowly on inputs rather than ownership. Who truly owns the land? Who controls the data generated from that land? Who has access to machinery and logistics networks essential for planting and harvesting? I recently told a delegation that it is my hope that my farmers will not need me after 1,000 days in our MIG Ecosystem, but will choose to work with us. I have observed farmers compelled to sell their produce early at low prices to meet urgent cash needs, only for that same produce to later re-enter the village, processed and packaged, selling for higher prices that benefit distant urban businesses. It’s injustice, and plain inefficient, and a deep disempowerment of rural communities.  Do I have that magic solution that fixes everything? No, and that’s not the point. Let’s concentrate on the question: Who Owns The Village Economy? Empowerment should be redefined to include real ownership, decision-making authority, and strategic involvement rather than just providing resources. Who Really Owns the Infrastructure? Infrastructure extends beyond physical roads and bridges. It encompasses digital systems, logistics networks, credit facilities, warehousing, cold storage, and information networks. Yet, in Ghana’s villages, these vital infrastructures are predominantly externally controlled or managed. Consider specific scenarios: Local economies continuously become hollowed out, reduced merely to labour and land resources that enrich outsiders. Reversing this trend requires infrastructure designed and managed with explicit community involvement, shared ownership models, and prioritising local needs over external extraction. Easier said than done, but needs to be said nonetheless. Cultural Commodification Without Returns Rural Ghana boasts a vibrant culture full of festivals, storytelling, and indigenous knowledge. These are often commercialised without meaningful benefits to local custodians. Who receives royalties when traditional patterns appear in global fashion? Who profits from sacred spaces turned tourist hotspots? We risk creating value flows that drain rather than enrich communities. Cultural exploitation without financial returns damages the economic vitality and dignity of rural areas. International examples from countries like Australia and Canada demonstrate how cultural intellectual property protections can safeguard local communities, ensuring a share of the profits from their heritage flows back to its true custodians. Additionally, policy frameworks promoting fair trade and equitable revenue-sharing from cultural tourism could further protect and empower rural communities. Data Ownership Is The New Economic Frontier In today’s digitised world, data is among the most valuable commodities. Rural Ghana sees limited benefit from the data it generates daily. Mobile money transactions, satellite imagery of farmland, telemedicine health data, and USSD-based surveys are all captured and controlled by external operators and intermediaries. The villages generating this data rarely see its value, yet this information shapes credit assessments, political strategies, and land-use decisions. Establishing community-owned data cooperatives could transform this landscape by enabling villages to monetise anonymised, valuable data streams. Successful examples exist in Kenya and India, and Ghana can follow suit, reclaiming economic control and empowering local communities. Such initiatives can build local capacities, fostering innovation and inclusive digital literacy. The Shadow Role of Middlemen Middlemen, often overlooked players within supply chains, hold significant influence. They operate trucks, manage storage depots, and handle export permits. These entities often prioritise profits through their strategic positioning rather than value creation. Platform cooperatives, digital logistics marketplaces owned by producers themselves, and transparent pricing tools can challenge and rebalance this power structure. Such initiatives are practical as East Africa already offers practical models that Ghana could follow. Public-private partnerships and government oversight could further disrupt exploitative practices, ensuring fairer trade relationships. Inheritance and the Silent Erosion of Control Ownership isn’t always actively taken. It can also quietly erode. In rural Ghana, productive assets such as farmland and homes are often passed down through custom and oral tradition, often lacking formal documentation. As younger generations migrate and elders pass on, these assets become vulnerable. Gradual land reallocation without explicit consent, leases granted by traditional authorities without family agreement, and government designation of

We’ve grown accustomed to talking about unemployment as if it’s a traffic light we’re waiting to change colour. But something deeper and more hazardous is creeping in beneath the surface. What if, even if and/or when opportunities arise, we don’t have enough people with the right skills to seize them? That’s the real danger. I’m not referring to a lack of degrees or certificates. It’s the growing gap between what our economy requires and what our population can provide. This mismatch could hinder Ghana much more than inflation or currency fluctuations ever might. The Old Problem Has Evolved We’ve long faced a youth unemployment issue. But that conversation is beginning to change. Ghana is modernising in parts. Agriculture is becoming more tech-driven, logistics is more digitised, and even informal retail is moving online. However, our education systems, training routes, and national mindset have not yet fully caught up with these developments. Think about this: All the while, many of our graduates are still emerging with outdated theory, limited practical experience, and little exposure to real-world problem-solving. I’m not criticising our educational institutions. I’m merely urging us to confront the gap. When This Became Obvious to Me I run companies across various sectors such as agriculture, logistics, tech, insurance, finance, hospitality, and more. I’ve noticed the same pattern in all of them: we receive CVs, yes. We interview graduates, yes. But often, the technical or operational fluency is lacking. We employ people who are expected to possess certain skills because, well, they graduated with specific credentials. Yet, we almost always find ourselves training them from scratch. This isn’t a one-off occurrence. It happens consistently across our operations. Every year, we need to onboard new staff to handle seemingly simple tasks. Instead, we often spend weeks, sometimes months, coaching them on what they should have known before starting. It slows down the company, increases costs, and delays project outcomes. Not because the recruits aren’t smart, but because their education never prepared them for the tools industry actually uses.  The other day, I found myself teaching our top-tier accounting intern how to calculate a moving breakeven point, adjusting for variable costs like rent. I shouldn’t be doing this. But that’s our reality. He’d learnt the breakeven formula: fixed costs, variable costs, unit price, unit cost, and that’s what he knew. It was clean, linear, and static.  But real-world finance doesn’t work that way. Costs fluctuate, revenue moves, and breakeven isn’t a fixed destination; in a real business, it shifts with the business. What struck me wasn’t just the gap in knowledge, but the mindset that finance is something you plug into a formula rather than interrogate.  Frankly, it’s part of our passion for the Africa School of Entrepreneurship. Because if we don’t prepare for complexity early on, we end up with technically brilliant minds that are unready for reality. And that costs far more than time. Key Observations I Have Made 1. Credential Inflation vs. Competency We’re seeing more degree holders, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the talent pool is stronger. Credentials are becoming more common, while core competencies, the real ability to perform the job, lag behind. Employers sift through piles of CVs only to find the skills they truly need are missing. We need to start valuing portfolios, apprenticeships, and practical experience just as much as formal education. I’m not devaluing education. I’ve only realised that a certificate is only as useful as the competence it indicates. 2. Lost Talent in the Informal Economy Across Ghana and much of Africa, the informal sector is filled with individuals who solve real-world problems every day, yet they remain invisible to the formal job market. The trotro mate who calculates change faster than a POS machine. The market woman who tracks rotating inventory mentally. Abochie shakes a wad of cash and can tell you how many bills are missing from the stack. These are highly capable individuals with no formal recognition. If we created mechanisms to identify and upskill this talent, we’d be surprised by how much economic value we’re leaving unclaimed. 3. Soft Skills Are Now Hard Assets Gone are the days when communication and teamwork were ‘nice to have’. Now, they determine an organisation’s success or failure. I’ve seen more projects stall due to poor collaboration or a lack of initiative than because someone couldn’t write code or operate machinery. Emotional intelligence, adaptability, negotiation, these need to be taught with the same rigour we apply to technical subjects. We must begin to see soft skills not as side dishes, but as a main course. 4. The Curriculum Isn’t Broken. It’s Just Slow. Our educational content remains highly useful. However, respectfully, it is simply not fast enough, and this is not their fault, because the world is moving so quickly. The market evolves quarterly, but curricula take years to update. That delay is costing us. Imagine if university syllabi were revised every two years, with input from private sector partners and employers. We would bridge the gap between learning and relevance.  5. We’re Over-Indexing on Jobs, and Under-Indexing on Problem Solvers We often tell young people to ‘get a job,’ but what we truly need are those who can create value in complex, uncertain environments. Builders. Solvers. Initiators. People who see a broken system and find a way to fix it. The Africa School of Entrepreneurship (ASOE), for instance, trains for both employment and enterprise. And in today’s volatile landscape, that mindset might be our most important national resource. What Businesses Can Do Now While we wait for public policy to catch up, businesses can take the lead. Mentorship, apprenticeships and support are essential for personal and professional growth. These should not be seen as charity but as investments in future capacity. Upskill your current team. Don’t just hire: build! Create internal programmes that enhance their value. Collaborate with platforms like Africa School of Entrepreneurship (ASOE), the MIG Impact Platform, and local tech hubs that are training tomorrow’s workforce. Create real learning environments. Let interns and junior

In Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and even the smallest communities across Ghana, you’ll find markets that never sleep and side hustles that never end. From the trotro mate collecting coins with digital precision, to the young woman selling airtime while taking mobile money payments, entrepreneurship is everywhere, even if it doesn’t always look like it. But the issue is that too many Ghanaians still view entrepreneurship as something reserved for tech bros or people with capital and corner offices. That mindset needs to change. Because today’s Ghana needs more entrepreneurs and more people who think like businesses, whether they are formally registered or not, as Alhaji Tanja will attest to this. There’s a certain fire that lives inside you, and it lives inside everyone who ends up being an entrepreneur. Sometimes it shows up as a big, bold vision. Other times, it’s just a quiet, restless itch to do things better, faster, smarter. But that fire doesn’t belong only to CEOs or business owners. It can live in the trader in Makola, the nurse running a side hustle, the student selling on campus after class, or the driver saving up for their own ride. Entrepreneurship is more than owning a business. I work with so many agro-aggregators and farmers and I can confidently tell you that it’s more about how you think, how you solve problems, how you take initiative, and how you create value even when resources are tight. And in today’s Ghana, whether you’re employed or unemployed, in the informal or formal sector, thinking like a business isn’t optional anymore. It’s a survival strategy and the bridge between struggle and stability. Ghana is a country within a continent whose ancestors’ ancestors have been hustlers, not just job seekers. THE REAL MEANING OF AN ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET Let’s strip away the buzzwords. An entrepreneurial mindset means three things: This is why a woman selling waakye at dawn can outperform a shop manager with a university degree. It’s more than the job title. It’s very much about the mindset too. The Ghanaian economy is largely informal, making up about 80% of the workforce according to the Ghana Statistical Service. That means most people are not in structured employment. Salaries are not guaranteed. Opportunities are not handed out. So we must create our own. WHY NOW MORE THAN EVER? It’s because the cost of living is rising. Global economic pressures. Currency fluctuations are still possible. Youth unemployment. I am not just taking this from headlines. They’re a daily reality for millions of Ghanaians. But here’s the paradox: these same challenges make this the best time to think like an entrepreneur. Hard times force creativity. Scarcity sharpens skill. And technology levels the playing field. You don’t need a big office to start a venture. You need a phone, a plan, and the right frame of mind. You can use WhatsApp to run a delivery business, Instagram to sell fashion, and Mobile Money makes things much easier compared to decades ago. It’s happening already. The question is, are you in the game or watching from the sidelines? HOW TO START THINKING LIKE A BUSINESS (EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT ONE YET) Knowing your value is the first step to packaging it into a product, service, or solution. This discipline separates a hustle from a business. It’s also what banks, investors, and even partners look for. You need suppliers, mentors, marketers and other people who can help your business, even if informally. One relationship can change your entire trajectory. WHAT ESTABLISHED BUSINESSES CAN DO BETTER Even if you already run a business, adopting an entrepreneurial mindset can help you grow. WHERE TO FIND SUPPORT IN GHANA Don’t ignore these. Look them up. Apply. Follow up. Your breakthrough might just be in that one opportunity. EVERYONE IS A BUSINESS Your skill is your product. Your phone is your shop. Your time is your capital. If you don’t treat yourself like a business, who will? It’s a new culture you have to adopt. One where every Ghanaian feels empowered to create, not just consume. One where we teach entrepreneurship not only in lecture halls but in life. Because the truth is, this country needs millions of thriving small businesses. And behind every one of them is a mindset. A habit. A way of seeing the world, from the eyes of a Ghanaian just like you. That’s the entrepreneur in you. Let it lead you. I hope you found this article both insightful and enjoyable. Subscribe to the ‘Entrepreneur In You’ newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/d-hgCVPy. I wish you a highly productive and successful week ahead!  ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ —- ♕ Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Dr. Maxwell Ampong, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, or beliefs of Maxwell Investments Group or any of its affiliates. Any references to policy or regulation reflect the author’s interpretation and are not intended to represent the formal stance of Maxwell Investments Group. This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. Readers should seek independent advice before making any decisions based on this material. Maxwell Investments Group assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content or for any actions taken based on the information provided.