For Ghanaian Entrepreneurs, Opportunity Knocks But Opening the Door is Not so Easy

Building Ghana's Economy, One Contract at a Time
Mar 20, 2015 2:30 PM ET

The New Global Citizen

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Daniel Kwarkyi, the Managing Director of Danest Engineering, a Ghanaian welding company, told his peers at a recent workshop to address challenges in winning work from oil and gas companies. “Because of the numerous challenges that have been gripping my operations,” he said, “the progress of my business has slowed and the patronage of my business by corporations is low.” The challenges Kwarkya described were many. The industry’s extremely stringent welding and fabrication standards are difficult to meet. Opportunities for formal vocational training are limited; many welders only learn on the job.

Kwarkyi is only one of more than 20 Ghanaian business owners who have benefitted from a recent effort, funded by the USAID Mission in Ghana, to improve the local supply chain to Ghana’s rapidly growing oil and gas sector. This initiative is driven by the recent discovery of massive off-shore oil.

Read more at The New Global Citizen.