A statement by Ghanaian broadcaster and Ghana Tourism Authority Deputy CEO Abeiku Santana has sparked a wider conversation about opportunities, entrepreneurship and the realities of life in Ghana.
In a video circulating online, Abeiku Santana made a striking comparison between Ghana and Western countries, saying that even if he were offered a monthly salary of $100,000 to live in the United States or the United Kingdom, he would still choose Ghana.
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His reasoning was not simply about patriotism.
According to him, Ghana offers numerous opportunities that many people fail to recognize. He argued that problems that frustrate Ghanaians every day can also represent potential business opportunities for people willing to find solutions.
The comments have since generated a mixture of admiration, disagreement and skepticism. The most attention-grabbing part of the discussion is the hypothetical $100,000 monthly salary. For many people, $100,000 a month would be life-changing money regardless of where they lived. Yet Abeiku Santana's argument was that money alone does not determine where he would prefer to live.
His position appears to be based on the belief that Ghana provides an environment where an ambitious person can identify gaps, build businesses and create value. His message was essentially this: where other people see problems, entrepreneurs should learn to see opportunities.
That idea is not new. Successful businesses around the world have often been built by solving problems that people complain about.
A shortage of a service can become a business. Long waiting times can create an opportunity for a more efficient service. Poor customer experience can create room for a company that does things better. Even everyday frustrations can sometimes reveal unmet demand.
This is the mindset Abeiku Santana appears to be encouraging. One of the most interesting ideas from his comments is the argument that complaints can reveal business opportunities.
Ghanaians complain about many things: transportation, food delivery, housing, education, healthcare, digital services, agriculture, waste management, electricity, payments and countless other everyday challenges.
But the important question is what happens after the complaint.
Does someone simply complain about the problem, or does someone ask:
“Can I build something that solves this?”
That distinction is at the heart of entrepreneurship.
A problem affecting thousands or millions of people can potentially represent a large market. The challenge is that identifying an opportunity is much easier than successfully turning it into a sustainable business.
And this is where the debate surrounding Abeiku Santana's comments becomes more complicated. There is certainly some truth in the argument that Ghana has opportunities that remain underdeveloped.
The country has a young population, a growing digital economy, a strong entrepreneurial culture and numerous sectors that still have significant room for innovation.
Technology, agriculture, tourism, logistics, education, financial services, healthcare and entertainment all present areas where entrepreneurs can potentially create solutions. Foreign businesses and expatriates sometimes recognize these opportunities and enter markets that local people may have overlooked. But saying that opportunities exist is not the same as saying that everyone has an equal ability to take advantage of them.
And that is where many critics of the statement have raised legitimate concerns. For someone with access to capital, networks, education, technology and influential connections, identifying an opportunity may be relatively straightforward. For a young Ghanaian struggling to find employment, however, the situation can look very different.
An aspiring entrepreneur may have a good business idea but lack the capital to launch it. Another may have the money but struggle with expensive credit. Someone else may have a promising online business but face challenges with internet access, logistics or payment systems.
A small manufacturer may have customers but struggle with electricity costs, equipment and access to affordable financing. These realities do not necessarily invalidate Abeiku Santana's argument. Instead, they demonstrate that opportunity and accessibility are two different things.
Ghana can have enormous opportunities while many Ghanaians still struggle to access them. This is perhaps the bigger question behind the debate. There are advantages to building a business in Ghana.
A local entrepreneur understands the culture, language, consumer behavior and everyday problems better than an outsider might. There are also markets that remain relatively underdeveloped compared with larger economies. At the same time, developed economies such as the United States and the United Kingdom offer their own advantages.
They generally have deeper financial markets, stronger infrastructure, larger consumer markets and more established business ecosystems. So the question should probably not be reduced to whether Ghana has more opportunities than America or Britain.
Entrepreneurship advice can sometimes sound attractive but become unrealistic when it ignores the circumstances people operate under. Telling someone to turn every problem into a business does not automatically solve the problem of financing, regulation, infrastructure or purchasing power.
A person can identify an excellent business opportunity and still fail because the surrounding environment makes the business difficult to operate. This is why entrepreneurship should not be presented as the only solution to Ghana's economic challenges.
Government policy, access to finance, infrastructure, education, reliable utilities and a functioning business environment also matter. Individual initiative is important, but the environment in which individuals operate matters too.
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