Stephen Amoah: The MP who sells palm oil as a side hustle

In the Ghanaian political scene, Members of Parliament beside their personal financial obligations require strong financial stability especially in the face of the many requests and expectations from constituents.

Despite the legislative work being a full-time job, MPs usually indulge in businesses that become their side hustle.

The MPs who engage in businesses usually go into ventures that one would associate with high-class citizens but for Nhiaeso MP, Stephen Amoah, he prefers to earn his side pay from selling palm oil.

Sharing his experience in a post, sighted by GhanaWeb, a Facebook user, Joseph Oppong-Brenya has explained how he ended up becoming a customer of the MP by patronizing his bottled palm oil.

Read the full post by Joseph Oppong-Brenya below:

The MP who sells palm oil during his free time*

Whiles in kumasi over the weekend I went to Barnas, a popular eating place in Kumasi for a lunch and I met up with the Member of Parliament for Nyhiaeso and former MASLOC CEO, Stephen Amoah, popularly known as Sticka. After a long chat, he told me, "My brother I'm selling palm oil" it was like I didn't hear him well so asked, what do mean? Then he repeated, "I'm selling bottled palm oil so you must buy some".

I thought it was a joke, so I requested for two bottles. He went to a Nissan hardbody pick-up, (very unusual of a Ghanaian sitting Member of Parliament driving a hard body pick-up) where he has packed the bottled palm oil. He has been moving around restaurants to homes selling palm oil.

I bought two bottles from him, I thought he was even coming to eat, no, he was selling his palm oil.

Meeting Sticka has thought me a great lesson, a whole MP is moving around selling palm oil which many think is a trade for our mothers and those uneducated.

You have a first degree with a job that pays you 3,000 Ghana cedis and you think you have arrived, you move from one big restaurant and hotels to the other playing big boy. Sticka unusual of an MP parked his Toyota land cruiser V8, I doubt if he has one and he is moving around selling palm oil.

It is a great lesson to us all, that you can be an entrepreneur and a businessman no matter what work you do. Let's cultivate and whip up the entrepreneuria mindset in Ghanaian youths. There is a lot of opportunities out there, you don't necessarily have to be employed, you can set your own business and employ others too.

The President, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo set up the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programm-NEIP to support businesses to grow and help new ones to emerge. NEIP in 4yrs has shaped up the entrepreneurial eco-system and supported thousands of Ghanaian entrepreneurs with training and funding.

Together let's support the president to promote and support the entrepreneurial eco-system.

~Joseph Osei Oppong Brenya.