My Nemesis: GIPC

It started out as first date jitters. A dance that ended with my toes stepped on multiple times while I was greeted with a warm and friendly smile. But like so many before, I continued until the music stopped. My romance with Ghana has ended with the introduction of the evil stepmother, a chaperon from Hell: GIPC. This government sponsored organization is wrongfully named the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre but like a friend once told me cross out the “promotion” and replace it with “procrastination” and there you have it: Ghana Investment Promotion Procrastination Centre.

I should have smelled a rat, right then and there. Because when you see people running around in 100 degrees, wearing custom suits, French shirts with diamond studded cufflinks, Italian silk ties while people right outside their windows, in the street are suffering in filth and poverty; bells ring in your head, *if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck- believe me it’s a duck!* RUN! A forewarning to all global investors who wish to pursue business opportunities in Ghana: Watch your wallet & beware of the smiling faces of GIPC. They twist facts (law statute); foster a creative imagination and a spectacular selective memory- in short: they lie! and will do anything to squeeze you until their coffers have been filled with your hard earned foreign currencies.

Case in point, their website http://www.gipc.org.gh/home.aspx provides forms for investors to fill out, outlining the process and procedures of starting a business in this Sub-Saharan African country. Well don’t waste your time filling them out, because they are obsolete. And thus the road to disappointment begins.  You come here, with high hopes of making a difference and doing the right thing with integrity along the lines of not bypassing the system…believe me: it doesn’t matter because these people have one thing in mind and that is how to get their hands in your pocket. Again, RUN! Ghana is a wonderful country filled with caring and friendly people but it is safe to say that this country also has a strict social class hierarchy where the rich will continue to pry on the weak while the powers that be, will continue to serve as gatekeepers to the status quo. Contact me directly for more facts before you decide to do business in this country.

I will give you verifiable facts on how the Ghana Investment Promotion Procrastination Centre is lead by questionable practices and procedures as if you were dancing with the devil.

Headfirst in a Sub-Saharan Startup

Ok, Yes I am drinking an ice cold Star, one of Ghana’s favorite beers. I did it, I confessed my first blog post may be one filled with drunken slurs, typos, a rant or two and a few other “deniable” unacceptable social norms. When it comes to drinking crispy, ice cold beer, Star cannot be beat. Plus I like how the bottle has 4 stars embossed right on the side, great for people that are visually challenged. Think of the guy who has a visual impairment that can now know confidently when he grabs a Star bottle he knows for a fact what he has in his hand. But back to the reason as to why I am starting this blog. I am a perpetual entrepreneur. Some have a vice for wine, women or cars but for myself…its startups. The rush, pitter patter of the heart when you make your first hire, even your first sacking and sell is unmistakably a rush worthy of a 5 dollar rock of crack cocaine...such is life as a serial entrepreneur.

Thus it comes to be, I am over 5000 miles away from home (Where is home, anyway?) in the capital of Ghana, Accra. Working hard at “moving forward” with our little startup called Grow Ghana LTD, a social enterprise with a hybrid business model (yet to be tested). We have a ragtag team of inexperienced young wannabe entrepreneurs which are for the most part constantly late coming and early going… but dedicated nonetheless of our quest to GrowGhana!  Come with us and experience the trails, challenges and joys of establishing a post web 2.0 business in the booming Sub-Saharan Africa.  But be forewarned the roads are rough, the electricity is sporadic and the water stops flowing at the mention of, “I’m going to go take a shower”