Belgium Businessman Left Ghana Due To Persistent Demands For Bribes To Construct The Chocolate Factories In Mexico and Guatemala

Bribery demands before contract awarding are a regular occurrence in the NPP government. However, one foreigner, who was planning to use Ghana's cocoa beans to build a chocolate factory, was forced to flee the country because all government departments he went to obtain the necessary documentation to start his business demanded bribes. This was so concerning to him that he eventually left the country to establish his chocolate factories in Mexico and Guatemala.

Any healthy economy is built on foreign investments and the establishment of businesses in Africa. As such, the Ghanaian government ought to have acted professionally to encourage more foreign investors to establish businesses in Ghana, but the challenges these investors face there frequently deter them. Every authority or office they visit, after they begin working on their plans want a bribe from them. This is an awkward situation that has persisted for a while.

Products made from cocoa beans at the customers’ shop in the "Chocolate Museum" in Antwerp, Belgium. Photo credit: Joel Savage

He said that even if the firm is successful, individuals would let him down, due to the way things were going, which means that eventually, the business will fail. In light of this, his partner looked for other options and traveled to another nation that grows cocoa beans. After making that choice, they reasoned that the desire for bribes might be a widespread issue in Africa; as a result, they completely neglected the continent and moved elsewhere, where they were successful in Mexico and Guatemala.

Despite not having any cocoa plants, Belgium is the richest European nation in terms of chocolate production. Therefore, it calls into question the morality of African leaders as to why many African countries, like Ghana, produce cocoa but many of their citizens, including farmers, live in extreme poverty, while non-cocoa-producing nations in developed nations, like Switzerland, are wealthy in chocolate production. More significantly, a large number of the children are in child labor.

The lack of employment in Ghana is truly regrettable; the government is unable to provide for the needs of thousands of jobless individuals, especially young people, and those who are willing to establish factories feel under pressure to leave the country because officials require bribes before they can assist them. That is truly dishonorable. These kinds of experiences are bad for investors since no one will be interested in doing business in Ghana when they share their tales with other potential investors.

Since many investors have already lost faith in this administration as a result of the collapse of banking institutions and the financial crimes that go unpunished, I believe it is time for Ghanaian politicians to address the core of the issue to entice foreign investors.

Other articles on chocolate production written by the writer for ModernGhana:

Ghanaians Must Stop Viewing The Country As The Property Of NDC Or The NPP, We Need Development https://www.modernghana.com/news/1094673/ghanaians-must-stop-viewing-the-country-as-the.html

Ghanaians Will Cry If They Know What Comes Out Of Cocoa Beans In Belgium https://www.modernghana.com/news/1128831/ghanaians-will-cry-if-they-know-what-comes-out.html

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