Prof Kwame Gyan recounts leaving $75,000 US job for $2,000 Ghana salary

Lawyer and legal academic, Professor Kwame Gyan, has shared his personal journey of returning to Ghana after years in the United States.

According to him, his decision to come home despite the significant financial sacrifice has allowed him to make an impact he believes would have been difficult to achieve abroad.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM on September 11, 2026, Gyan said he left Ghana in 1991 to pursue graduate studies in the United States, where he attended Temple Law School and later New York University (NYU) Law School.

He subsequently secured a position at the Ford Foundation's headquarters in New York and obtained an H visa, which he described as a visa granted to foreigners with distinguished merit.

According to him, by 1998, he was earning an annual salary of about $75,000 in the United States.

However, a requirement attached to an earlier J visa meant he had to return to Ghana and remain in the country for at least two years before he could return to the United States.

At the time, the University of Ghana had offered him an opportunity to teach at the School of Law, but the salary was approximately $2,000 a year.

"I left this country in the year 1991. Went to graduate school in America. I was fortunate. I attended the best schools. I went to Temple Law School. Went to NYU Law School.

“…my annual salary at that time basically was $75,000. In 1998, the salary that the University of Ghana was going to offer me was $2,000 a year at that time. From $75,000 a year to $2,000 a year."

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Gyan said the decision was particularly difficult because Ghana was experiencing significant economic challenges, including frequent power outages.

He also had the option of remaining in the United States after receiving an offer from the US Court of International Trade. The position, he explained, would have required him to become an American citizen.

Despite the financial advantages, Gyan said he chose to return to Ghana rather than change his citizenship.

"I told myself, why should I change my citizenship? I'm going home," he said.

Gyan recalled the difficult conditions he encountered upon his return, including the power crisis and the poor infrastructure at the University of Ghana School of Law, where students were being taught in a wooden structure.

Nearly three decades later, he says the decision has allowed him to influence generations of Ghanaian lawyers.

"I don't believe I would have made that impact in America by any stretch of anybody's imagination," he said.

Gyan said he has taught 27 batches of law students over 27 years and has never taken leave from teaching.

"I would have made money in America, yes. But is it all just about money?" he asked.

He said his experience supports comments by media personality Abeiku Santana about the opportunities available to Ghanaians who choose to remain or return home with useful skills.

"I left a $75,000-a-year job abroad in 1998 for a $2,000-a-year job in Ghana." - Lawyer Kwame Gyan shares his personal journey in support of Abeiku Santana’s position on the opportunities available in Ghana.#JoySMS pic.twitter.com/bUu0jEItZm

— Joy 99.7 FM (@Joy997FM) September 11, 2026

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