The Real Reason Ghana Keeps Failing And How Ghanaian Entrepreneurs Can Break the Cycle

Hey Global Guardian Citizens, Adrian here.

2

00:00:02,171 --> 00:00:06,995

Welcome to the Sound of Accra podcast, the show where we showcase global Ghanaian

excellence to the world.

3

00:00:06,995 --> 00:00:08,296

I'm your host Adrian.

4

00:00:08,296 --> 00:00:18,903

Now today, what we're gonna do is we're gonna tackle various infrastructure challenges

that continue to plague the nation of Ghana time and time again, and why entrepreneurs and

5

00:00:18,903 --> 00:00:23,217

startups are potentially the solution to fixing the country once and for all.

6

00:00:23,217 --> 00:00:25,389

All of this and more on today's episode.

7

00:00:25,389 --> 00:00:27,200

So let's go straight into it.

8

00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:35,752

over the past few weeks, Ghana has been buzzing on about a number of topics, floods,

dumsor galamsey leadership debates.

9

00:00:35,752 --> 00:00:38,053

The list goes on and on and on.

10

00:00:38,053 --> 00:00:42,944

What are Ghanians really saying about 2026?

11

00:00:42,944 --> 00:00:45,285

Let's let's dive into it.

12

00:00:45,285 --> 00:00:45,655

All right.

13

00:00:45,655 --> 00:00:50,467

So I mean, the situation is really real in Ghana at the moment.

14

00:00:50,467 --> 00:00:52,948

As you can see in the article, it says

15

00:00:53,304 --> 00:01:08,694

current dumsor worst Ghana has experienced since 1999 and that's by Miracles Aboagye and

he's a spokesperson for the MPP 2028 and he's the current flag bearer for them as well.

16

00:01:08,794 --> 00:01:19,253

So his comments have come, you know, amid weeks of erratic electricity supply affecting

households, businesses and essential services across the country.

17

00:01:19,253 --> 00:01:24,657

this situation commonly referred to as Dumsua has been linked to transformer upgrade works

by the ECG.

18

00:01:24,657 --> 00:01:34,455

uh According to the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, the situation has been

worsened by a fire outbreak at the Akasumbo substation, which results in the loss of power

19

00:01:34,455 --> 00:01:36,046

to the national grid.

20

00:01:36,486 --> 00:01:43,611

clearly you can see Ghana has a situation at hand and this is not the first time things

like this have happened.

21

00:01:43,851 --> 00:01:47,685

We've been here time and time again where Ghana has been in this situation.

22

00:01:47,685 --> 00:01:50,645

And it just seems to be going on in cycles, to be honest.

23

00:01:50,645 --> 00:01:53,165

If it's not done so, it's flooding.

24

00:01:53,165 --> 00:01:54,667

it's not flooding, it's gallimsey.

25

00:01:54,667 --> 00:01:57,458

If it's not gallimsey, it's a debate in the leadership.

26

00:01:57,458 --> 00:02:00,918

We seem to be in this vicious cycle that we can't get ourselves out of.

27

00:02:00,918 --> 00:02:13,629

And I think the time has come and the technology has come for entrepreneurs and startups

and for the people to take power into their own hands and tackle some of these challenges.

28

00:02:13,629 --> 00:02:15,520

I think it's...

29

00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:19,504

insufficient to rely on the public sector to solve all of these problems.

30

00:02:19,504 --> 00:02:30,233

There's a lot of movement in part to the public sector as you all know and it's time that

the private sector including ourselves rise up and take control of these topics for the

31

00:02:30,233 --> 00:02:32,384

sake of our own nation.

32

00:02:32,584 --> 00:02:40,542

right so right let's continue on so I mean when you think about all of these things it's

not looking good right now for Ghana.

33

00:02:40,542 --> 00:02:45,364

On the other hand, know, you've got flooding risks, are spiking as well.

34

00:02:45,364 --> 00:02:47,215

You have a lot of risks at the moment.

35

00:02:47,215 --> 00:02:52,295

So over 2000 buildings now encroach Volta basin waterways.

36

00:02:52,295 --> 00:02:54,926

And this is after the 2023 disaster.

37

00:02:54,926 --> 00:02:56,677

Now the Volta

38

00:02:56,677 --> 00:03:03,179

Volta region authority warns it's disaster waiting, limiting water management.

39

00:03:03,179 --> 00:03:15,601

In addition, galamsey continues to poison rivers with mercury levels far beyond what the

World Health Organisation is limiting.

40

00:03:15,601 --> 00:03:20,136

So these all seem like attacks on Ghana's infrastructure and economy.

41

00:03:20,136 --> 00:03:23,638

Leadership debates certainly have not helped at all.

42

00:03:24,499 --> 00:03:32,256

But really how I see it is when you look at the Bible, the Bible says the kingdom divided

against itself cannot stand.

43

00:03:32,256 --> 00:03:40,576

So if we are going to debate and talk about all of these different topics and, you know,

take different sides and stuff.

44

00:03:40,576 --> 00:03:45,898

we aren't never gonna see the progress that we want Ghana to make like we've seen of other

African nations.

45

00:03:45,898 --> 00:03:52,861

So it's time for us to come together rather than to be divided and take different sides in

all these different types of areas.

46

00:03:52,861 --> 00:03:55,181

That's what we need to do at the moment.

47

00:03:56,062 --> 00:04:02,345

But really and truly every cloud has a silver lining and challenges certainly breeds

market opportunities.

48

00:04:02,345 --> 00:04:04,517

So for example, when you think about it,

49

00:04:04,517 --> 00:04:15,796

The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat, also known as NAIMOS has rolled

out 24-hour surveillance tech to fight back against galamsey which is a good thing.

50

00:04:16,437 --> 00:04:27,756

And then the regular power cuts in Ghana is also driving solar startups and backup power

firms as ECG are working to 2,500 faulty transformers.

51

00:04:27,977 --> 00:04:32,622

So you start to see some outliers step in and try to

52

00:04:32,622 --> 00:04:37,266

contain the situation whilst the public sector is trying to bring a solution.

53

00:04:37,266 --> 00:04:43,740

Meanwhile, to tackle flooding, demand has surged for organisations like GARID, alright?

54

00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:54,717

And this stands for Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development Project to perform

drainage upgrades protecting 2.5 million people in Greater Accra.

55

00:04:54,717 --> 00:05:00,893

And it could also be argued that galamsey say will open doors for satellite and AI

monitoring where technology can

56

00:05:00,893 --> 00:05:11,896

detect sites in real time and this will help to recover some crucial revenue for

businesses and the local areas providing opportunities for businesses and the government

57

00:05:11,896 --> 00:05:14,297

to act much faster than ever before.

58

00:05:14,297 --> 00:05:14,909

right.

59

00:05:14,909 --> 00:05:17,560

Technology has really helped us to do this, right?

60

00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:23,872

This could all usher in a new era of infrastructure and industrialization in Ghana.

61

00:05:23,872 --> 00:05:26,714

You may have heard one of my previous episodes where

62

00:05:26,714 --> 00:05:34,080

I made parallels between Mahama's current term and Nkrumah's reign when he first started.

63

00:05:34,474 --> 00:05:45,241

I'm seeing some parallels, I'm not making a direct comparison to Mahama but I'm starting

to see some echoes of industrialisation and serious infrastructure being laid in the

64

00:05:45,241 --> 00:05:53,320

country, a bit like what Nkrumah did when he first took the presidency in Ghana, when

Ghana first became a republic all those years ago.

65

00:05:53,320 --> 00:06:00,704

So the ideal outcome here would be to turn systematic gaps into scalable ventures and this

is what we're starting to see, right?

66

00:06:00,704 --> 00:06:07,269

Adversity does breed, you know, some kind of opportunity as you have seen here, right?

67

00:06:07,409 --> 00:06:18,634

Now a lot of online noise on platforms like Twitter has been very vocal about comparing

leaders in Ghana recently, who fixed this, who fixed that, who failed this, et cetera.

68

00:06:18,634 --> 00:06:21,276

But in my opinion, it's easier said than done.

69

00:06:21,276 --> 00:06:25,060

What is required here is to anticipate blackouts.

70

00:06:25,060 --> 00:06:28,041

For example, like the Volta region one that we've just spoken about.

71

00:06:28,041 --> 00:06:35,508

uh It's important for us to be able to design to solve for floods, to mitigate, saying

risks.

72

00:06:35,508 --> 00:06:39,610

It's going to take more than the government to eradicate these challenges in the country.

73

00:06:39,610 --> 00:06:48,156

Hence the focus of this episode is that the private sector, including entrepreneurs and

startups are going to have to team up with the public sector to help the country.

74

00:06:48,156 --> 00:07:00,872

It even begs the question, could AI come to the rescue with President Mahama recently

launching the National AI Strategy Roadmap, which is big, big, big news.

75

00:07:00,872 --> 00:07:06,805

So what does the average business owner in Ghana need to be free from further disruptions?

76

00:07:06,805 --> 00:07:11,596

They need solar energy as a backup, flood proof supply chains.

77

00:07:11,676 --> 00:07:13,998

They need technology for clean water.

78

00:07:13,998 --> 00:07:15,178

and so on and so forth.

79

00:07:15,178 --> 00:07:18,940

So these are the kind of things that these people are going to need.

80

00:07:18,940 --> 00:07:24,483

So the inception of Ghana is based on the foundations that Kwame Nkrumah laid for the

country, right?

81

00:07:24,483 --> 00:07:27,624

But today we have something that they didn't have in the Nkrumah era.

82

00:07:27,624 --> 00:07:34,419

That's technology, some really bright minds, and we have entrepreneurship as well, which

is alive and well in Ghana.

83

00:07:34,559 --> 00:07:38,791

Technology can contribute to providing solutions to all of these challenges.

84

00:07:38,791 --> 00:07:50,461

AI and drones for anti-galamsey we can have flood sensors and AI to prevent and monitor

floods and we can have solar grids to provide solar backup energy from any ad hoc power

85

00:07:50,461 --> 00:08:00,170

cuts and for this reason we shouldn't just ask what is the government doing we should

rather be asking ourselves what profitable fix can I build to support the country of Ghana

86

00:08:00,170 --> 00:08:04,057

so global ghanaian citizens floods dumsor

87

00:08:04,057 --> 00:08:14,017

galamsey and leadership are the current talking points at the moment, but resilience and

innovation will be the key to unlock a new period of Ghana's history, where these things

88

00:08:14,017 --> 00:08:15,680

will become a thing of the past.

89

00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:16,861

Which side are you on?

90

00:08:16,861 --> 00:08:26,532

Should we be blaming those in authority for all these recurring problems, or should we

start to look at ourselves and other people in the private sector?

91

00:08:26,532 --> 00:08:34,949

especially entrepreneurs, startups and innovators on how we can solve these problems with

our minds and technology once and for all.

92

00:08:34,949 --> 00:08:37,060

If you've made it to the end, you've been amazing.

93

00:08:37,060 --> 00:08:38,942

I've been Adrian Daniels.

94

00:08:38,942 --> 00:08:42,137

Until next time, God bless and I'll see you in the next one.

95

00:08:42,137 --> 00:08:43,358

Thanks for listening guys.

96

00:08:43,358 --> 00:08:43,724

Take care.