Why Ghanaian businesses collapse after their founders die - President Mahama explains

President John Dramani Mahama has called on Ghanaian entrepreneurs to prioritise succession planning, warning that the absence of clear transition structures is one of the leading causes of business collapses in the country.

Speaking at the Kwahu Business Forum on March 4, 2026, the president, citing an earlier submission by KGL Group Chairman Alex Apau Dadey, said Ghana's business landscape is littered with enterprises that had risen and fallen simply because founders failed to prepare for life after them.

"The major problem with most Ghanaian businesses is that the founder is gone and there is no proper succession planning. Relatives start quarrelling over the business and before you know it, the business goes under," he said.

President Mahama then recalled a popular 'tuo zaafi' joint in Tamale that had been a landmark eatery during his teenage years.

He said he returned to Tamale years later expecting the business to be gone after the founder had died, only to find it still thriving and was now run by the founder's daughter.

"That is effective succession," he remarked.

The president warned that businesses cannot afford to scale up without building structures that outlast their founders.

"If you grow from a small enterprise into a big enterprise, we don't want the founder, one day when he's not there, to have that business collapse," he said.

Mahama singled out Kasapreko Company Limited as an example of successful succession, revealing that the company's founder has retired and gone back to his village to farm and has handed the reins to his son.

"His son is running the company and the company is even growing bigger than when the father ran it," the President noted.

Mahama urged business owners to identify successors early, whether within the family or otherwise, and to bring them into the business soon enough to properly understand its operations before taking over.

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