Our position is that investors and operators approaching the West African market should treat Ghana as one node in a wider regional market accessible under the African Continental Free Trade Area and existing ECOWAS protocols — not as a stand-alone opportunity evaluated on its own terms. Treating Ghana in isolation consistently undervalues both the risk and the opportunity on the table.
We recommend a Ghana-first, region-second sequencing for new entrants over attempting a simultaneous multi-country launch: establish regulatory footing, banking relationships, and a local delivery partner in Ghana first, then use that base to evaluate adjacent markets — Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal — on a case-by-case basis, rather than committing capital across several jurisdictions before any single one is de-risked.
Where our clients are public institutions rather than private investors, we hold a related but distinct position: regional trade facilitation policy should prioritise harmonising customs documentation standards before it prioritises tariff reduction, since documentation friction is currently a larger practical barrier to intra-regional trade than tariffs themselves for most SME exporters.
AFR