For an economy to thrive, private investors need to pump money into it by establishing businesses in the country.

Some of the money they make goes to the government in the form of taxes.

On the other hand, the citizens gain employment as these businesses are established, and would need persons to run them to witness growth.

What comes to mind when you hear the name Femi Otedola, Dangote? Your guess is as good as mine. These people are labelled as the richest men in Nigeria.

In Ghana, names like Osei Kwame Despite, Jospong, McDan, Ibrahim Mahama, and Sam Jonah are also known as top businessmen in the country.

But did you know that should these business magnates decide not to invest in the local economy, it would be wobbling?

One can argue that these men own chains of companies, support the government, and also solve one of the government's major challenges, youth unemployment.

Below are the top 5 Ghanaian private businessmen

Ibrahim Mahama

Ibrahim Mahama is a Ghanaian businessman and the founder of Engineers and Planners, the largest indigenously owned mining company in West Africa. He is also the owner of several other businesses in Ghana.

The mining company now employs over 3000 Ghanaian employees. Ibrahim Mahama has also invested in Asutsuare poultry farms, which was started in 2004 and produce 150,000 eggs and 10,000 live broilers a day.

He’s the owner of Dzata Cement Limited. Dzata Cement Company Ltd is touted as the first fully Ghanaian-owned cement processing factory.

The factory is located on about 10 acres of land near the Tema port. The over 200-million-dollar plant is expected to produces an average of 120 bags per minute from its two production lines.

The cement factory has a production capacity of 2.6 Million Tonnes per annum and this is the highest single cement facility in Ghana.

The factory has created five thousand direct and indirect jobs. It has provided employment opportunities for several thousands of Wholesalers and Retailers, across Ghana and the West African sub-region.

The factory commenced operations in August 2021.



Osei Kwame Despite

Osei Kwame Despite is an entrepreneur with a chain of media outlets, including UTV, Peace FM, under the name Despite Group of Companies. He owns Best Point Savings and Loans and has 50% shares in U2 Company Limited.

He also owns Neat Foods Company Limited which produces Neat Fufu, Neat Banku, Neat Abenkwan, Neat Hausa Koko, and Neat dairy products. The famous This Way Chocolate drink is also one of his products.



Jospong

Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong is the Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Zoomlion Company Limited.

This serial entrepreneur has employed several people in the sanitation sector. He currently owns Ignite Media; Metro TV, and Original FM/TV.



McDan

Business magnate, Daniel McKorley is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the McDan Group of Companies.

McDan Group of Companies is a Ghanaian transportation and logistics company with operations in freight forwarding for land transports, sea freight, air freight and contract logistics.

He owns a private jet terminal at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana.



Sam Jonah

Sam Jonah is a Ghanaian businessman and the executive chairman of Jonah Capital, an equity fund based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was previously the president of AngloGold Ashanti and headed about 19 different companies.

His Jonah Capital is the second-biggest shareholder in the pan-African micro-lender, Bayport, and a major shareholder in Houses for Africa, a firm that offers middle-class residential construction projects and financing in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Nigeria.



ESA/BOG