• 101 Ways to Find the Money to Save and Invest: Wealth Creation Ideas for the Very Poor and the Not So Poor

    Investment opportunities are as many as human needs, wants and desires. Thus the aim of this compilation is not to attempt a comprehensive coverage of investment opportunities. In fact, we are not even competent to do so as assuredly our names do not feature among the investment gurus and practitioners.

    However, we trust many will read this book and expand their knowledge base of investments as others have done to bail themselves out of abject poverty. We hope this book will be read by all classes in the society but particularly our target audience, namely those below middle class most of whom earn less than USD 2,000 per annum, for whom the teachings in this book would be a life-transforming experience.

  • Perseverance Conquers All: The Autobiography of Kantinka Kwame Donkor Fordwor

    As a very poor boy, Kantinka sustained himself in school by selling firewood. He walked four miles every day from village, Breman, to Kumasi to attend school. He recounts how by dint of hard work, he sailed through elementary and secondary school to the Graduate School of Wharton even though fate had prevented him from doing sixth form studies. He recollects how at St. Augustine’s College, Cape Coast, he was cured of a strange disease by a traditional priest. His beloved wife had to discontinue her studies to help him complete his. Kantinka thus passed through a darkness of life which continued in his working life.

    His decision to provide a house for the Executive Chairman of the Capital Investments Board, in order to save the Board huge sums of money in rent payments, was so maliciously interpreted that he was editorially castigated and lambasted. His ingenious polices that eventually helped to raise the capital of the African Development Bank from US $200 million to US $100 billion was rewarded with his dismissal as the President of the Bank.

    He incurred the ire of his enemies for the appreciation he received from three Kings of Asante Kingdom.

    Perseverance Conquers All portrays these midnight sides of Kantinka’s life to let his sun shine brightly. His wife gave him six children any father could wish for, whom he educated as a very responsible father. Providence made him help Ghana in its financial difficulties when he became the virtual Minister of Finance during the reign of Colonel Acheampong. His input to the progress of the Catholic Church has even been more monumental as explained beautifully in the book. Kantinka is indeed the sun at midnight.

    Reliance on God, patriotism, philanthropy, hard work, good family life, good parenthood, honesty, and magnanimity is what this life story portrays. This is a book that all must have and read: the student as well as the teacher; the Christian, husband and patriot.

  • Knowledge Management and Network for Capacity Development: A Focus on Institute of Directors Ghana (Hardcover)

    The book examines how directors in Ghana share tacit knowledge and experiences on the board. The rationale is that there is the tendency for boards In Ghana to lose tacit knowledge, experiences, skills and particularly up to date knowledge required to inform their decision making due to lack of practical knowledge management system for directors’ capacity development. The focus is to examine how the Institute of Directors Ghana (IODG) can manage knowledge with the view to tackling challenges leading to losing tacit knowledge, experiences, and skills of boards in Ghana.

    The objective is to influence boards of organizations in Ghana to recognize and initiate knowledge management practices, as well as adopt policies that support the application of practical knowledge management systems and interpersonal networks for directors’ capacity development in Ghana.

    The results revealed the existence of records of minutes of meetings indicating a latent existence of knowledge management system within organizations but not formalized as a knowledge management system. Also, significantly missing was technology for knowledge transformation.

    The book recommends knowledge management systems backed by technology for acquiring and sharing directors’ knowledge for successful knowledge transformation.

  • In Pursuit: Journeys in African Entrepreneurship

    In Pursuit – Journeys in African Entrepreneurship chronicles the journeys of two friends whose experiences in America shaped their approach to starting their own businesses in Nigeria. Drawing on their experiences of working, building and supporting business, and exposure to multimillion-dollar projects around the world, they uncover what it takes to own, run, and grow a profitable business.

    Through their personal insights, they relay information relevant not only to entrepreneurs and investors seeking to do business in Nigeria, but anywhere on the globe―after all, the heart of business is human interaction. Their conversational banter-jab style, for which they’re known in person and on social media, invites readers into their circle where they can share the wisdom gained through continuous pursuits to fulfill their dreams.

    Business and life intersect. No matter your goal, you’re not crazy, and no, you’re not alone! Through In Pursuit, two Bendel boys invite you to laugh, yell, and reflect, as they converse from head and heart.

     

  • Guts and Grit: The Compelling and Inspirational Stories of Six Successful Ghanaian Entrepreneurs

    How can a nation address the menace of a growing number of unemployed youths? Why is the private business endeavour perceived largely as a big risk? What does it take for one to brave the storm and establish a flourishing enterprise? This book highlights the success stories of some of Ghana’s current entrepreneurs despite all the obstacles they have faced. Guts and Grit serves as a revelation to our public officials and the society at large towards a behavioural change in how private enterprises are seen, regarded and treated.

    The frank and engaging case studies provide the catalyst for dismantling the obstacles to achieving business success. The success stories so freely shared offer a source of inspiration and a springboard to the young people who would be willing to take up entrepreneurship.

    ***

    Guts and Grit is a book that chronicles the gut-wrenching stories of entrepreneurs who have braved significant odds to build viable businesses in a developing economy context.

    In choosing to write this book, Alex Banful, the author could not have made a better choice. The choice of entrepreneurship should not be surprising, given that there is at least four decades of scholarship to demonstrate that entrepreneurship, new business venturing, and the development of small and medium enterprises are crucial to Africa’s growth.

    Guts and Grit will soon become a leading cross-over entrepreneurship textbook that will be useful

    for executive training, undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes in Africa and other emerging economy contexts.” − Prof. Robert E. Hinson, Ph.D., DPhil.; Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Kigali, Rwanda

  • My Footprints in Ghana’s Black Gold

    This memoir — part historical and part autobiographical — traces the author’s involvement with the final phase of petroleum exploration in Ghana, a journey that took over a century, beginning with the first onshore well in 1896. It has been a most interesting journey, with many twists and turns.

    In the early days of the existence of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, there were various myths and half-truths about the presence or absence of commercial quantities of oil and gas in the basins of the Ghana.

    • Nigeria was draining Ghana’s oil and that all that was required was for Ghana to buy powerful machines and begin to pump and drain her own
    • Ghana would never find oil until the gods of Nzemaland and the Volta Region had been pacified
    • The GNPC Model Production Sharing Agreement was too stringent on contractors

    A major seismic interpretation of the Cape Three Points sub-basin of the Western Region, in 1992, would turn out to be the watershed of this new brave phase of exploration in Ghana.

    The book was finally launched in Ghana in April 2022.

    Hopefully, going to the heart of the matter should help future generations of ordinary Ghanaians, politicians and explorationists understand what it took to make Ghana a petroleum producing country, just in case the country was afflicted by the “Dutch disease.”

  • How to Raise Capital for your Start-up Business

    The most important skill for every aspiring entrepreneur to develop is to be able to raise capital for your start-up business.

    The book serves as a complementary knowledge in building this very important skill which will ultimately help to grow start-ups to big companies that will contribute to economic development.

    This book also serves as a motivational book for this generation of both the young and old to continue to believe in their dreams of building start-up businesses, and apply this handy knowledge to raise capital.

    The seven chapters book is built around the word CAPITAL for readers to easily recall the contents and apply them in the process of raising capital for start-ups.

  • Sand, Sun & Surprises: A Nigerian Expatriate in the Middle East – A Memoir

    Sand, Sun & Surprises is a personal story told by a Nigerian Professor about his experiences and observations working in, and visiting countries in the Middle East over 23 years. 

    The 316-page memoir includes descriptions of the social life, leisure and religious practices in the region. It captures a snapshot of the socio-economic landscape of Nigeria reeling from the economic depression of the late 1980s and the surprising contrasts with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, societies adjusting to dramatically improved standards of living as a result of their massive oil wealth.

    This book is a compelling read for those who intend to visit or work in the Middle East, or indeed pursue careers outside their countries.

  • Failing To Win: Hard-Earned Lessons from a Purpose-Driven Startup

    In 2009, Canadian entrepreneur Mike Quinn packed his backpack and moved to Lusaka, Zambia on a mission to find African entrepreneurs building scalable, high-impact businesses. There he stumbled across two South African brothers who had founded a business to help unbanked smallholder farmers receive mobile payments in a market where cash was king. After convincing his retired parents to mortgage their house and lend him $100,000, Mike joined as a co-founder of Zoona and became CEO for nine of the next ten years.

    With his partners, Mike built a network of more than 3,000 entrepreneur agents across Zambia and Malawi that enabled millions of unbanked consumers to send and receive $2.5-billion in money transfers and remittances. Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, Zoona raised over $35-million of venture investment and operated on the leading edge of Africa’s emerging fintech ecosystem.

    Mike’s remarkable story gives a rare and honest glimpse into the workings of a pioneering African startup through the lens of a purpose-driven entrepreneur who went “all in”. Zoona faced tremendous adversity along the way: currency crises, investment round collapses, ruthless pushback from the major mobile network operators, and a continuous internal struggle to discover and execute a growth strategy that matched the company’s billion-dollar ambition. It was by failing to win that Mike learned what entrepreneurship is all about, and it was what motivated him to double down and try again.

    “This raw, honest account is a must-read for anyone thinking about starting a company and for every entrepreneur who feels alone in the journey.” — Elizabeth Yin, Co-Founder & General Partner of Hustle Fund

    “Startups are hard. Most people understand this. However, most people don’t understand why. Mike’s story is a rare glimpse into how challenges present themselves — and ultimately how to overcome.” — Matt Flannery, Co-Founder of Kiva & Branch

    “In a rare look behind the scenes, Mike shares a vivid picture of the other side of leadership we don’t talk about enough. As he aptly describes ‘founding, failing and winning’, this book highlights the risk of taking that all-important first step, embracing failure and ensuring you learn the transformative lessons critical to success as an entrepreneurial leader.” — Fred Swaniker, Founder of African Leadership Group

    “This story is a gift for entrepreneurs and indeed anyone wanting to learn about the first generation of African fintechs that paved the way for future companies to thrive.” — Katlego Maphai, Co-Founder & CEO of Yoco

    “Mike’s humility, resilience and depth of knowledge of how to build a pan-African business are unique, and his testimony of experience is an important short history of the fintech boom on the continent.” — Elizabeth Rossiello, Founder & CEO of AZA

    “Failing To Win is a captivating account of an incredibly talented and unusually forthright entrepreneur who built an ambitious purpose-led company that started in Zambia. At Oxford I have taught the Zoona case study to countless MBA students to show how fundamental principles of entrepreneurship can be meaningfully applied in a novel context. It just takes courageous and smart individuals who are not afraid of failing (in order) to win.” — Thomas Hellmann, DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Oxford’s Saïd Business School

    “Innovation has gone global, and is transforming people’s lives around the world. But startups are risky. Sometimes they scale and sometimes they fail. In Failing To Win, Mike shares insightful lessons from his journey at Zoona about what it takes to operate with integrity, impact and inspiration in the new Frontier of Innovation.” — Alex Lazarow, Author of Out-Innovate: How global entrepreneurs – from Delhi to Detroit – are rewriting the rules of Silicon Valley

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  • Inside Out: Autobiographical Memoirs

    The author recounts a journey that starts in a small town in Ghana, through an academic and professional career in finance in Canada and the United States, culminating at the Ministry of Finance in Ghana where he served as Technical Advisor to three different Ministers of Finance from different political parties.

    The memoirs depict the complexities of decision-making that combine technical know-how with political reality using several instances of policymaking and financial transactions that he led at the Ministry. For the technical reader, the author recounts a 25-year history of his involvement in many key initiatives of financial market development in Ghana.

    The sweetener in Inside Out is an interesting case study of how to navigate political transitions and maintain relevance as a senior advisor to Ministers in a “winner-takes-all” political environment.

  • Golden Footprints: Memoirs of an African Development Worker

    This book is a biography within a biography; it is about the author’s life lived in the northern part of Ghana in the peculiarities of the undocumented socio-cultural uniqueness of the region. It mirrors the hard road the author and many first-generation literates of his generation have travelled in building their lives in significant ways to impact society. A major part of the book is dedicated to a narrative of the experiences of the author while working for the NGO community across the African continent. It documents the challenges these organisations faced in various countries where they facilitated development and outlines how the interventions of NGOs have benefited rural populations. It is fodder for intellectual consumption, literature for academic discourse and more information for development students and practitioners. The book documents indigenous knowledge that has hitherto been left to oral tradition and ignored in the Ghanaian education system. Finally, the book demonstrates the divine hand of the Almighty God in the life of the author as one reads through breath-taking moments of divine interventions that otherwise could have ended his life and career. All these are narrated to provide the suspense normally found in fiction books.

  • Contemporary Issues in Foreign Policy, Diplomacy and International Affairs

    This is a collection of essays derived from a series of symposia and online webinars hosted by the Council of Foreign Relations- Ghana.

    From the inaugural symposium chaired by Ambassador James Victor Gbeho, with addresses by The President of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the CFR-Ghana elicits interesting views and opinions from people best placed to be aware of the big picture of contemporary issues in international affairs, particularly from the perspective of how they impact our African Continent.

    Totally informative and engaging, sometimes entertaining and mentally provocative, which challenges us all to seriously reflect upon contemporary issues in foreign policy, diplomacy and international affairs.

    “The setting up of CFR-Ghana is long overdue and I’m glad that finally it has been done. The Executives and Founding Members are to be commended for this achievement and I wish them the very best of luck in the years to come. “

    – H.E President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (President of the Republic of  Ghana)

     

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  • A Rose Among Thorns

    Born on 17th September 1952 in Sakyikrom near Nsawam in Ghana’s Eastern Region, Dr. (Mrs.) Felicia Boateng Danquah (nee Akotua) is the third of five children born to her parents, Mr. Jonas Akotua and Mrs. Clara Akotua.

    Due to her father’s regular transfers arising out of his employment with the Ghana Health Service, she was educated in different parts of the country, including Walewale and Bolgatanga, before entering the Komenda Teacher Training College (as it was then), where she trained as a teacher. She worked for some time with the Ghana Education Service as a teacher before going into business full-time.

    A devoted Christian and Vice President of Jofel Catering Services in Kumasi, Dr. (Mrs) Danquah is married to Lt. Gen. J B Danquah, Ghana’s Chief of Defence Staff from 2005 to 2009 and President of Jofel. The couple have six children.

    The year 2022 serves as a confluence of an important trilogy in Dr (Mrs.) Danquah’s life − her 70th birthday anniversary, the 50th anniversary of her marriage and the 40th anniversary of Jofel, one of the most iconic institutional names in Kumasi and an undoubted leader in the catering and hospitality business in the city and beyond.

    In this fascinating, yet simple, easy-to-read publication to mark these important landmarks in her life, the author recalls her early childhood experiences and family, particularly her mother Clara, who she adores, and shares the story of Jofel and its evolution to what it is today.

    She also shares her perspectives on the values she treasures that she believes have helped her enormously in her Christian faith, her marriage and family, and in building an award-winning business with the support of her family, among others.

    A Rose Among Thorns speaks to the challenges of life that most of us can identify with and seek inspiration from in the knowledge that our lives can flourish like the rose even among the thorns of life with God as our helper and beacon.

  • Igba-Boi: Repositioning the Igbo Apprenticeship System (Hardcover)

    Igba-boi: Repositioning the Igbo Apprenticeship System highlights the entrepreneurial exploits of the Igbos of south-eastern Nigeria. Despite the globalisation-accentuated influence of western business culture, the Igbos have sustained their indigenous business system undergirded by an ingenious apprenticeship system, Igba-boi.

    This apprenticeship system has existed in the Igboland for decades as an important heritage, embedded in cultural norms and values passed down for generations. The authors argue that the unique framework and rules of operation of this viable socioeconomic empowerment model will, if well-positioned, make significant contributions to the advancement of the boi/Nwa-boi  (apprentice), the Oga (Master), the community (Ndi-Igbo) and the achievement of the country’s overall developmental goals.

    Case studies of prominent and successful Igbo people in business feature in the book to illuminate our understanding of the system:

    • President and Chairman, Coscharis Group – Application of Design Thinking to Igba-boi Business Model leading to extraordinary business success

    • Chairman, E. Sunny Vespa International – Disruption of Motorcycle Engine Technologykey lessons and success story

    • Chairman and Chief Executive, Chisco Group – Building an Empire on Integrity & Authenticity

    • Chairman, Legacy Motors – Apprenticeship, Ndi-Igbos and ASPAMDA Market, Lagos

    A timely, easy-to-read, valuable resource and reference text for scholars, practitioners and regulators interested in institutionalising a sustainable business model in Africa based on a tested indigenous apprenticeship system.

  • Swimming Upstream: The Story of Southern Cross

    Kwame Donkoh Fordwor’s dream was realized due to the precision planning which was utilized to develop Southern Cross Mining Limited (SCML), as the company established itself as the first active gold mining operation to be brought to Ghana Since 1937. This came to pass by way of chance associations and the joint efforts of collaborators who possessed different backgrounds and motivations.
    Even with the assistance of numerous people along the way, the inception of Southern Cross was not easy. It required aggressive action and time to fend or larger corporations and fight government officials for the rights and freedoms they felt they deserved.
    Fordwor titles this book Swimming Upstream: The Story of Southern Cross because of the comparisons he draws between himself and the struggles of salmon attempting to reach their spawning grounds. Much like a salmon battling currents, fishermen, and other predators to reach its final destination, Fordwor had to struggle to make his own path and place in history, using keen instincts and good fortune to maintain the competitiveness and success of SCML.
    Swimming Upstream vividly details the rich history of Southern Cross and other gold mining venturers who strived to achieve historical recognition. It is an illuminating work-powerfully written and inspirational to all who are still seeking to make a lifetime dream come true.

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