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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Lebanese businessmen in Ghana
| Panel |
12. African entrepreneurs and/in emerging markets: towards a situational understanding of entrepreneurial behaviour?
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| Paper ID | 468 |
| Author(s) |
Malki, Xerxes
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | The history of the Lebanese community in Ghana is marked by the attempts of a small immigrant community to free itself of the state’s economic regulatory power. The British colonial regime established the precedent of attempting to restrict the community’s demographic and economic growth through a series of immigration ‘reforms’, coupled with legal measures designed to curb Lebanese ownership of landed property. The Riots of 1948 dealt a blow to the principally retail-orientated businesses of the Lebanese. After independence, the Lebanese were encouraged by Nkrumah to fund and participate in joint state/private ventures to promote import substitution. The enforcement of the Aliens Compliance Order and the Business Promotion Act in 1970 drastically reduced the number of Lebanese in the country through the expulsion of non-Ghanaians whose businesses could not demonstrate an annual turnover of over $300,000. The limits applied to the community over the course of the twentieth century have pushed many Lebanese into the manufacturing sector, and increasingly into the realm of ‘financial services’. Today Ghanaian Lebanese own transnational companies, including telecommunications, aviation, commodities and building materials manufacturing interests. Their operations increasingly reach beyond Ghana’s borders into other West African nations. This paper will explore the evolution of a new Lebanese capitalist class in Ghana, which has developed through these processes. It will highlight the techniques and strategies the Lebanese have implemented in order to survive and thrive in their adoptive homeland. Finally, the paper will situate the Ghanaian Lebanese in the overall economic development of all of West Africa, emphasising their networking potential and their growing regional economic influence. |
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