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Networks, trust and capital mobilisation: Challenges of
embedded local entrepreneurial strategies in Ghana's
oil and gas industry
Article  in  The Journal of Modern African Studies · September 2015
DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X15000385
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Austin Dziwornu Ablo Ragnhild Overå
University of Ghana University of Bergen
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Networks, trust and capital mobilisation:
challenges of embedded local entrepreneurial
strategies in Ghana's oil and gas industry
Austin Dziwornu Ablo and Ragnhild Overå
The Journal of Modern African Studies / Volume 53 / Issue 03 / September 2015, pp 391 -
413
DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X15000385, Published online: 10 August 2015
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022278X15000385
How to cite this article:
Austin Dziwornu Ablo and Ragnhild Overå (2015). Networks, trust and capital
mobilisation: challenges of embedded local entrepreneurial strategies in Ghana's
oil and gas industry. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 53, pp 391-413
doi:10.1017/S0022278X15000385
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J. of Modern African Studies, ,  (), pp. – © Cambridge University Press 
doi:./SX
Networks, trust and capital
mobilisation: challenges of
embedded local entrepreneurial
strategies in Ghana’s oil and
gas industry
AUSTIN DZIWORNU ABLO
Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Norway
Email: austin.ablo@uib.no
and
RAGNHILD OVERÅ
Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Norway
Email: ragnhild.overa@uib.no
A B S T R A C T
In December  Ghana pumped its first oil and a local content law was passed
in  to promote local participation in the oil and gas industry. This paper
examines Ghanaian entrepreneurial activities and the dynamics of local participa-
tion in the emerging oil and gas sector. We explore Ghanaian entrepreneurs’
strategies of mobilising networks to acquire information, build trust, raise
financial capital and reduce risk with the aim to gain entry, win contracts and par-
ticipate in the oil and gas industry. We argue that the resources and strategies acti-
vated by entrepreneurs embedded in the context of the Ghanaian business
environment are inadequate and problematic when deployed in the context of
the international oil and gas industry. The international oil companies’ cost-in-
tensive standard requirements and state officials’ informal interventions further
limit local firms’ prospects for participation in the oil and gas industry.
I N T R O D U C T I O N
Extractive industries’ role in Africa’s political economy remains a subject
of intense debate in academic and policy discourses. In , Ghana
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 A U S T I N D Z I W O R N U A B L O A N D R A G N H I L D O V E R Å
discovered oil in commercial quantities and started production in 
(McCaskie ). Efficient management and utilisation of wealth from
the extractive sector can promote economic development as in Norway,
Malaysia and Botswana (Larsen ; African Development Bank &
African Union ). But as numerous studies from countries such as
Nigeria (see Sachs & Warner ; Watts , ; Humphreys
et al. ), Angola, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic
of Congo (see Karl ; Appel a) and Bolivia (see Auty )
have demonstrated, political, economic and institutional factors can
lead to resource curse (Karl ). The resource curse thesis describes
the inverse relationship between natural resource extraction and devel-
opment (Auty ; Humphreys et al. ; Yates ).
To mitigate the resource curse, the natural resource governance lit-
erature emphasises good governance, transparency, accountability,
local content and participation as some of the key measures
(Humphreys et al. ; Klueh et al. ). In , three years after
the start of oil production, a local content law was passed in Ghana.
The Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations
 (L.I. ) forms part of the strategy to promote internal and ex-
ternal linkage between the country’s emergent oil and gas sector and the
rest of the economy. Ultimately, it is aimed at enabling Ghana to avert
the typical problems associated with petroleum extraction. The local
content law requires foreign companies to use local personnel, goods
and services at each level of the oil and gas value chain (Ministry of
Energy and Petroleum ). With regards to Ghanaian companies,
the law requires that preference should be given to Ghanaian companies
in any bid process. The local content law is seen as crucial for promot-
ing Ghanaians’ participation in the oil and gas sector to avoid the poten-
tial for offshore oil and gas exploration and production to occur in
secured enclaves (Ferguson ) with little linkage to the rest of
society (Karl ; Appel b). Based on case studies of Ghanaian
entrepreneurial activities in the oil and gas industry, this study empiric-
ally investigates the challenges of local participation in an emergent oil
and gas sector.
A body of literature exploring Ghana’s political economy and govern-
ance of the oil and gas sector is emerging (see Gyampo ; Gyimah-
Boadi and Kwasi Prempeh ). Obeng-Odoom () examined the
ways in which the oil and gas industry is impacting the economy of
Sekondi-Takoradi; Ablo () examined the employment process
of Ghanaian oil-rig workers; Ackah-Baidoo () looked at the impacts
of the offshore oil and gas sector on fishing. Other studies examined the
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E N T R E P R E N E U R I A L S T R A T E G I E S I N G H A N A’ S O I L 
ways in which capacity building programmes enhance the prospects for
Ghanaian businesses in the nascent oil and gas industry (see Ablo ).
This study contributes to the growing literature on Ghana’s emergent
oil and gas sector by exploring the strategies and challenges of Ghanaian
entrepreneurial activities in the oil and gas industry. Focusing on the
socio-cultural, institutional, political and financial embeddedness of
entrepreneurial activities in the Ghanaian context, we examine the rela-
tive lack of success of Ghanaian firms’ entry and participation in the oil
and gas sector. It is argued that the resources and strategies activated by
local entrepreneurs embedded in context of the Ghanaian business en-
vironment are less relevant, inadequate and problematic when deployed
in the context of the international oil and gas industry. Additionally, the
strict and cost-intensive requirements by international companies also
hinder local firms’ participation. This challenge is compounded by
the informal interventions by state officials in the award of contracts as
well as the lack of enforcement of the local content law.
In the next section we examine socio-culturally specific ways in which
networks and trust shape access to financial capital and influence entre-
preneurial activities. After a discussion of the data production process,
case studies of local entrepreneurship in the oil and gas industry are pre-
sented. The strategies and constraints of the entrepreneurs are analysed,
and then followed by empirical and theoretical conclusions.
T H E C O N T E X T F O R E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P I N G H A N A
Entrepreneurship is the development, management and organisation of
a business venture amidst risk (Montanye ). Though entrepreneur-
ship lacks a single definition, its contribution to economic development
is not doubted. In both developed and developing countries, entrepre-
neurial activities have played significant roles in economic development
(Abor & Quartey ). In Sub-Saharan African economies where over
% of people are self-employed in the informal economy (Meagher
), the establishment of mostly small but also larger businesses in
the informal economy is important for development (Fafchamps
). Informal economy here refers to unregistered and untaxed eco-
nomic activities (Hansen & Vaa ), though the borderline between
the informal and formal economy is seldom clear-cut.
Enterprises can be categorised according to scale, usually based on the
number of people employed. Common categories in Ghana are micro
enterprises (– workers), small enterprises (– workers), medium
enterprises (– workers) and large enterprises ( or more
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 A U S T I N D Z I W O R N U A B L O A N D R A G N H I L D O V E R Å
workers) (Abrefa-Gyan ). In both the formal and informal
economy, micro and small-scale enterprises make up % of all manu-
facturing businesses, while medium-scale enterprises constitute %
(Abrefa-Gyan ). It is estimated that small- and medium-scale enter-
prises (SMEs) contribute about % to Ghana’s GDP and constitute
% of businesses (Abor & Quartey ). Large-scale enterprises on
the other hand constitute only % (Abrefa-Gyan ). The large
numbers of SMEs are owned by indigenous entrepreneurs whereas
the very few large enterprises are often owned by foreign entrepreneurs
(Yoshino ). As in most African countries, this creates a dualistic en-
terprise structure in Ghana (Yoshino ).
We contend that if Ghanaian entrepreneurial activities could be pro-
moted in the oil and gas industry it has the potential to link the sector
with the broader Ghanaian economy. It could generate spillover
effects and facilitate trickle down of the oil-wealth. However, Ghanaian
entrepreneurs in the oil and gas industry face challenges in terms of
lack of access to finance, appropriate technology and limited managerial
skills. The development of a large and vital Ghanaian oil and gas sector
will therefore be a demanding and perhaps not very likely outcome,
despite the local content law.
Additionally, the public administrative system in Ghana and several
other African countries is characterised by poor planning, lack of man-
agerial capacity, inefficiency, corruption and increasing absence of pro-
fessionalism (Fafchamps ; Quartey ). These result in a ‘slow
and ponderous bureaucracy, weak supervision at all levels and unrespon-
siveness to the needs of the public’ (Quartey : ). As Fafchamps
() noted, the African civil service is often underequipped and
officials are paid less in relation to their job schedules. The implication
is that enterprises across Africa operate in what can be described as an
insecure institutional environment. In the oil and gas sector in Ghana,
this could lead to a lack of enforcement of the laws including the local
content law as a result of lack of institutional capacity.
In order for enterprises to ‘survive’ in a system characterised by
limited efficiency and high risk, entrepreneurs create networks and
build trust to secure their businesses (Lyon ; Fafchamps ).
Personal trust then becomes ‘an effective substitute for security’ for
these businesses (Fafchamps : ). The networks take various
forms and are mostly established through marriage, kinship, ethnicity,
religion and political parties (see Hanson ; Overå ) as elabo-
rated further in the next section.
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E N T R E P R E N E U R I A L S T R A T E G I E S I N G H A N A’ S O I L 
Embeddedness of entrepreneurial activities
Economic actions are socially, culturally and politically embedded
(Granovetter ). According to Bråten (: ), ‘prevalent economic
forms are not born by market rationalities and efficiencies, but are the
results of complex socially embedded production of meaning’.
People’s activities are intricately made of the meanings they incorporate
in their lives (Schudson ). These meanings are informed by cultural
codes like norms (how people are expected to behave in a given society),
values (what is dear to people) and beliefs (how people think about the
universe) (Griswold ). Such cultural meanings shape the resources
and strategies of entrepreneurs.
These cultural meanings are fundamental to the formation of social
relations and economic activities (Bråten ). As Overå ()
observed, to participate in Ghana’s market system, a trader needs to
take into consideration several moral, social and cultural concerns and
cannot operate with a simple individualistic logic. Norms are thus the
basis of building and maintaining trust and as will be discussed next,
social networks and trust are integral in economic activities including
local participation in the oil and gas sector.
Social networks and trust
Social networks influence the flow and quality of information
(Granovetter ), which is vital when entrepreneurs establish a busi-
ness. As Granovetter () pointed out, the structure of exchange
relationships has an impact on economic outcomes which in this
context refers to local entrepreneurs’ successful entry and participation
in the oil and gas industry. According to the embeddedness argument,
personal relations and networks are relevant for generating trust
(Granovetter ). Trust as used here denotes the confidence in
others in spite of uncertainties and risks (Lyon ). Trust is particu-
larly important in situations characterised by lack of legal mechanisms
(Davis ), imperfect information (Lyon ; Fafchamps )
and when individuals cannot entirely depend on institutional arrange-
ments or shared norms (Granovetter ). For Ghanaian entrepre-
neurs in the oil and gas industry, information about opportunities
thus has to come from a trusted source. Such sources can be provided
through relevant formal and informal networks in the oil and gas in-
dustry. Networks and trust are therefore crucial for access to the
financial and non-financial resources relevant for any entrepreneurial
activity.
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 A U S T I N D Z I W O R N U A B L O A N D R A G N H I L D O V E R Å
Entrepreneurial capital conversion
Entrepreneurs are members of various social fields (empirical systems of
social interconnections) with ascribed and achieved social statuses
(Bourdieu ). Party politics, religion, ethnicity, kinship and the
public sector bureaucracy are some of the social fields within which
Ghanaian entrepreneurs are embedded. A field is described as ‘a
social arena within which struggles or maneuvers takes place over
specific resources or stakes and access to them’ ( Jenkins : ). In
underscoring the resources deployed by Ghanaian entrepreneurs in
the oil and gas sector, we consider Bourdieu’s distinction of cultural,
social, economic and symbolic capital to be useful.
Cultural capital, according to Bourdieu (), exists as credentials and
assets embodied in individuals and their families, objectified in the form of
cultural goods and institutionalisedas educational qualifications. It includes
‘shared understandings of the symbolism in discourse, images, goods, or
actions that can be transformed into other forms of capital’ (Perrault
: ). Social capital can be described as ‘the structure of relations
between actors and among actors’ (Coleman : S). It entails net-
worked ties of favour, mutual support, shared language, shared norms,
social trust, and a sense of mutual obligation (Crossley ). Social
capital can thus be understood as a social resource on which individuals
can draw in pursuance of a particular goal (Westermann et al. ).
Social capital is not necessarily independent of cultural capital since
cultural codes are fundamental to ‘homogeneity’, the basis of social
ties. Social ties shape economic behaviour and as Meagher (: )
noted, ‘social ties and embedded institutions have entered into the
heart of contemporary economies’. In Ghana’s oil and gas industry
where actors embedded in different local and international contexts inter-
act, it is important to understand how this shapes the prospects for local
entrepreneurship. Economic capital, according to Bourdieu (), is
directly convertible into money and can be institutionalised in terms of
property rights. It may include shares, financial capital and factories (or
other physical assets). The economic (or physical) capital of local entre-
preneurs is a prerequisite in a capital intensive oil and gas industry.
Symbolic capital is understood as trust, prestige, honour or good faith
and as the outcome of conversion of other forms of capital. Bourdieu
(: ) considered symbolic capital as ‘the form that the various
species of capital assume when they are perceived and recognised as legit-
imate’. For example, money has no inherent worth but relies on societal
recognition as a legitimate form of exchange (Lawler ).
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E N T R E P R E N E U R I A L S T R A T E G I E S I N G H A N A’ S O I L 
Possessing one or several of these capital forms does not guarantee
entrepreneurial success. Rather, the ability to enact and combine mul-
tiple forms of capital is crucial for entrepreneurial success.
Entrepreneurship involves the combination of capital to attain a particu-
lar result (produce goods and services) amidst uncertainties (Kuenyehia
). Essential here is local entrepreneurs’ ability to convert one form
of capital into another form of capital that can be activated beyond the
local business environment and be made relevant in the oil and gas in-
dustry. In this study, we focus on the ways in which crucial forms of
capital are mobilised and converted, or not converted, into other
capital forms shaping various degrees of success among local entrepre-
neurs in the oil and gas industry.
M E T H O D O L O G Y
The study is based on eight months of fieldwork carried out in Accra,
Tema and Takoradi, the main cities of oil and gas activities in Ghana.
The fieldwork took place between May and August , November–
December , April–July  and September–October . Doing
the fieldwork over a long period enabled us to study the evolving strategies
of some of the first Ghanaian SMEs that gained entry into the oil and gas
sector, and to discover new businesses that aspire to enter the sector.
We examined  SMEs consisting of three ‘leading’ local oil and gas
service providers located in Takoradi and eight aspiring SMEs drawn
from a list of  businesses obtained from the Enterprise
Development Center (EDC) in Takoradi. We purposively selected
SMEs that aspire to provide products and services to the International
Oil Companies (IOCs). Access to informants influenced the sampling
of businesses. Some informants provided invalid phone numbers,
email addresses and locations, which sometimes made it impossible to
locate their businesses to include them in the sample. Five of the 
sampled SMEs are presented as illustrative case studies.
Interviews were conducted with  informants ( women and 
men) including managers, administrative staff and employees of the
businesses. The issues explored included the strategies, resources, and
challenges of local businesses attempting to gain entry into the oil and
gas sector. Key informants such as officials of the EDC, the Ministry of
Energy and Petroleum, and an international oil company (IOC) were
interviewed using an interview guide. The IOC official was interviewed
about experiences in dealing with Ghanaian public institutions and the
criteria they use when awarding contracts to local companies. Secondary
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 A U S T I N D Z I W O R N U A B L O A N D R A G N H I L D O V E R Å
data sources for the paper included the local content law document
(Ministry of Energy and Petroleum ) and newspaper publications
on the oil and gas industry between  and . In the following sec-
tions, the challenges and strategies adopted by local entrepreneurs are
examined.
L O C A L E N T R E P R E N E U R I A L S T R A T E G I E S I N T H E O I L A N D G A S
I N D U S T R Y
The Ghanaian sampled SMEs are owned by one or two persons, often
relatives or friends, and sometimes without any formalised management
structures. They engage in training and recruitment of rig workers,
catering, cleaning and housekeeping services, supply of safety equip-
ment, warehousing, waste oil management, transport and logistic ser-
vices. Training and recruitment of oil rig workers is a new business
niche while the rest entails diversification of existing businesses to take
advantage of new opportunities in the oil and gas industry. Supplying
safety equipment, for example, represents a continuation of supply busi-
nesses in Ghana’s mining sector where supplying Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE), such as boots, helmets, coveralls and gloves, has
been an important business for many years.
Before a local company is invited to bid for contracts, they must meet
the IOCs pre-tender requirements. These include registration with the
Petroleum Commission of Ghana, the main regulator of Ghana’s oil
and gas industry. They also need a VAT certificate and insurance for
their business and staff. Additionally, local companies are required to
have a minimum annual turnover determined by the IOC, which is
based on the value of the contract they tender for. This minimum turn-
over requirement is necessary since local companies must have the
financial capacity to pre-finance the contracts. Businesses that meet
these requirements are registered as qualified local ‘vendors’.
According to the IOC official, a proven track record is a key determin-
ant of whether or not a Ghanaian company qualifies for contracts with
them. In his view, most of the local firms have inadequate expertise
and understanding of the operation of the oil and gas sector, and this
makes it challenging to do business with them. A proven track record
gives IOCs an idea of local firms’ ability to deliver quality goods and/
or services on schedule. Keeping appointments is a common problem
according to this informant: ‘I now have a new understanding of GMT
[Greenwich Mean Time] as Ghana Maybe Time’. The IOC official
used this term to describe the uncertainties encountered when doing
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E N T R E P R E N E U R I A L S T R A T E G I E S I N G H A N A’ S O I L 
business with Ghanaian companies. Sometimes, he claimed, representa-
tives of local companies turn up hours or even days late for their appoint-
ments. Also, Ghanaian entrepreneurs may quote high prices for their
products and services based on the perception that IOCs pay enormous
amounts. This is frustrating, according to the IOC official, so they prefer
to engage other international companies that they have dealt with
before.
In the following, we present cases showing how different local com-
panies operate, emphasising the socio-cultural embeddedness of their
strategies and the practical, financial and institutional constraints they
encounter. We first present examples of local companies that have ‘suc-
cessfully’ gained entry and are participating in the oil and gas sector.
Thereafter, cases showing the variety of more or less successful attempts
to gain entry and to ‘make it’ in the new and demanding oil and gas in-
dustry are presented.
The pioneers
The pioneers are leading local oil and gas service companies that gained
early entry into the oil and gas sector. These businesses are owned by
Ghanaian entrepreneurs who have worked in the oil industry in other
African countries, the Persian Gulf and in Europe. They returned to
Ghana when oil was discovered in . Below are the life histories
and strategies of three men who have succeeded in establishing an oil
and gas service company. We stress their strategies of combining
locally mobilised financial capital with their internationally acquired ex-
pertise through socio-culturally embedded business strategies.
Case : Successful entry and participation
After the announcement of the oil discovery three childhood friends,
James, Ekow and Ebo came together to set up an oil and gas service
company. James () is a marine engineer from Northern Ghana. He
moved to Takoradi as a child when his father got a job in the then
Gold Coast Railway Company (now Ghana Railways Corporation).
After obtaining his O-level and A-level certificates, he was awarded a gov-
ernment scholarship to study marine engineering in West Germany.
However, in  when Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Ghana,
was over-thrown his scholarship was cancelled. He worked part time
with a shipping company in Germany to finance his education. In
, James moved from Germany to Gabon where he worked as a
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 A U S T I N D Z I W O R N U A B L O A N D R A G N H I L D O V E R Å
marine engineer in the oil industry. While in Gabon, he purchased two
vessels, one for cargo haulage and the other used to ferry workers to the
oil rigs. After spending over a decade in Gabon, he sold his boat and
moved to Burkina Faso in the mid- s where he invested in mining.
He acquired concessions and invited Ghanaian miners to work for
him. In  he sold his mine and moved back to Ghana to explore
the opportunities for business.
Ekow () is a Fante (one of the Akan linguistic groups) from
Takoradi. He holds an O-level certificate. In the s, he moved to
Denmark, where he enrolled for a two-year college education. After
college, Ekow moved to Sweden where he enrolled at a trade school
in Gothenburg and trained as a welder and fabricator. When Ekow’s
training ended, he moved from Sweden to Norway and worked as a
welder with a gas extraction company. He later worked on a fishing
vessel before joining a friend in Oslo in  to start a private
company doing interior and exterior decorations in real estate. Ekow
studied logistics and warehousing before starting his own business in
, importing food stuff to Oslo from Ghana. He moved back to
Ghana in  and invested in a poultry farm.
Ebo (), a business man with O-level education, comes from a fishing
town near Takoradi. In , he moved to Takoradi with the aim to start
a business. After starting with petty trade in Takoradi, he sold mobile
phones in Nigeria for a period in the s. Returning to Ghana he
imported white goods and electronics from Italy to Ghana and later
computers from China. He invested the profits in an internet café,
and subsequently in hostels rented out to students at Takoradi
Polytechnic and in trucks for haulage of goods across the country. In
, he built a two-storey office complex in central Takoradi which
he rented out to other businesses.
In , the three friends reunited and with James’ and Ekow’s experi-
ence and Ebo’s economic capital, they decided to start a rig worker recruit-
ment agency in Takoradi. One floor of Ebo’s new building was converted
into an office for their new business. In order to secure a bank loan, Ebo’s
house, hostel and office building were used as collateral. According to
them, they found it difficult to approach the IOCs in this early phase.
They made several trips to Tema where the Ghana National Petroleum
Corporation (GNPC) is located, and as Ekow recalled: ‘We moved from
office to office lobbying for contracts.’After the  presidential and par-
liamentary elections, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), of which
James is a member, came into power. One of James’ party colleagues was
appointed toan influential position in theGNPC. James’ friend introduced
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them to some IOCs and helped them to secure their first contract. In the
words of Ekow: ‘We would have remained where we were till today if not
for the help of that GNPC guy.’
In , they had their first contract where they recruited  men to
the rig including a radio operator. However, after the radio operator
had gone to work on the rig, they discovered that he did not have the
level of expertise and experience he claimed to have. He could not
perform his duties in a satisfactory manner and was returned onshore.
According to Ekow, they almost lost the contract and the IOCs confi-
dence. He immediately contacted one of his friends, a former radio op-
erator who had worked in Gabon, whom they sent to the rig. This new
person performed well and this rescued their first contract and the
company expanded rapidly.
In , six years after its establishment, this ‘pioneering company’
provided rig workers to four IOCs operating in Ghana. Currently, they
employ  permanent administrative staff and depending on the avail-
ability of rigs, they employ from  to sometimes more than  rig
workers. Ebo’s hostel has been converted into a Health, Safety and
Environmental (HSE) training centre for oil rig workers. They have
also started the construction of a hospital in Takoradi to provide
private health services to both expatriates and locals working in the oil
and gas industry.
Between  and  the company has diversified its activity port-
folio from simply recruiting rig workers to providing a variety of ser-
vices: training of rig workers, housekeeping and catering, security
services, warehousing, transport and other logistic services. This is
crucial since most of their contracts with the IOCs are short-term con-
tracts. Recruitment of rig workers, for example, is only in demand
during the period when a particular rig is operational in Ghana’s
waters. The rigs usually drill for a maximum of three years and then
move to other countries upon which the contracts are normally termi-
nated. Occasionally, a few rig workers are needed to carry out mainten-
ance on the rig until it reaches its new destination. As a response, most
‘pioneering’ local recruitment companies have diversified their activ-
ities. The companies that first gained entry have an advantage since
they became known and trusted by the IOCs. A Logistics Manager
remarked that: ‘Our [the local company’s] diversification is demand
driven. The IOCs prefer a one stop shop.’ Thus the IOCs prefer one
trusted local company to provide the variety of products and services
they require.
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Servicing a ‘mafia’ industry
No official source of information regarding available business opportun-
ities exists in Ghana’s oil and gas industry. The few local businesses that
manage to get contracts rely on their contact persons within IOCs and
state institutions, whom they refer to as ‘insiders’. A Technical
Director of one of the local companies noted that: ‘To survive out
here [in the oil and gas industry] you must have insiders with the
Petroleum Commission, GNPC and the big companies [IOCs].’
Insider contacts in important institutions can provide updated informa-
tion about upcoming contracts or about new IOCs coming to operate in
Ghana. When local entrepreneurs know insiders in the Petroleum
Commission, for example, they are informed prior to the arrival of
new rigs in Ghana. With this information, local companies contact the
foreign rig operators and negotiate contracts even before the IOC and
other foreign oil and gas service companies arrive in Ghana.
Additionally, local entrepreneurs regularly network with Ghanaians
working for the IOCs and their subcontractors, who can also provide in-
formation about contract availability in Ghana.
Local companies with ‘insiders’ who are key actors have advantages
not only through information access but also tender processes. In one
case, Bray Ltd was initially awarded a contract to recruit rig workers
for an IOC. However before the contract was due for execution, it was
terminated. A different local company, Alks Ltd was awarded the con-
tract to recruit the rig workers. Investigation into this case revealed
that the CEO of Alks has contacts with the IOC. Their contact informed
them how much Bray was charging for the service. Alks sent a proposal
offering equally skilled workers at a cheaper rate. With the influence of
Alks’ contact person, the contract was taken from Bray Ltd and given to
Alks. This is possible because local companies sometimes provide goods
and services to IOCs without any written and legally binding contracts. In
January , for example, three Ghanaian crew members on the
Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel ‘Kwame
Nkrumah’ were laid off by the foreign company managing the vessel
(Alhassan ). The Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) on the
FPSO claimed that the activities of the three workers were compromising
safety on the vessel. The Ghanaian workers had been recruited to the
FPSO by a local company, which had no formally written contract with
the managers of the FPSO on this service provision which lasted for
more than three years. This made it easy for the foreign company to ter-
minate the contract without any legal ramification.
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The current state of affairs in the emergent oil and gas sector in
Ghana causes suspicion among local entrepreneurs. For example, a
Human Resource Manager in a Ghanaian company was initially not
willing to discuss salient issues during interviews because, as he puts it:
‘You [researcher] could be a spy from our competitors.’ Many infor-
mants describe the difficulties and non-transparent nature of activities
in the oil and gas industry as ‘mafia’. Hence, personalised trust
between management and staff of local companies is considered import-
ant for survival in such a ‘risky’ business environment. In order to find
trustworthy workers, business owners often employ members of their
church and/or ethnic group. As Ablo () showed, ethnic networks
are clearly important for the recruitment of rig workers. Ethnic and re-
ligious affiliations therefore provide sources of trust development for
many local entrepreneurs. Fafchamps () further highlights that
trust is essential in contexts where legal frameworks are non-existent
or not enforced. Justifying their use of ethnic networks, some informants
claim that they are promoting ‘regional employment’ or ‘providing op-
portunities for our people’. Thus recruiting workers of one’s own ethni-
city is seen as a way to ensure ‘trickle-down’ of the oil wealth to one’s own
home region, ethnic group or kin. In Case , for example, most of the
employees are Fante, which is also the ethnicity of the owners.
Similarly, the majority of employees in two other leading companies
are of the same ethnicity as the owners, Ewe and Ga-Adangbe respective-
ly. In the cases above, we have seen how the few local companies
engaged in the oil and gas sector strategically combine capital forms.
There are however several businesses that are unable to gain entry
due to several barriers.
C H A L L E N G E S A S P I R I N G L O C A L E N T R A N T S F A C E I N T H E O I L A N D
G A S I N D U S T R Y
This section examines challenges local companies face in their attempts
to participate in the oil and gas industry, such as bureaucracy, inability to
meet IOC standards, lack of financial capital and relevant networks.
Case : Bureaucratic challenge
Serwa () is a Fante from Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana.
She is a graduate of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public
Administration (GIMPA) with a degree in Marketing. Serwa has
worked with Barclays Bank, Ghana Cement (GHACEM) Ltd and an
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estate company in Accra. After deciding to start her own business, Serwa
pulled together her personal savings and started selling clothes. She trav-
elled to Lome and Cotonou to buy women and children’s clothes which
she sold in Takoradi. But she was not making much profit, so she
stopped. One of her friends working with an American company in
Accra offered to help her become the Western Regional Distributor of
the company’s lubricants. In , she opened a lubricant shop in the
Takoradi Kokompe Market, an artisanal car mechanics and spare part
dealers market. With money accrued from her clothing business,
Serwa purchased and stocked her new shop with the lubricants and
employed an assistant.
On weekends, Serwa plays golf at the Takoradi Golf Club where
several expatriates and Ghanaians working in the oil and gas industry
also play golf. Some of Serwa’s friends at the Golf Club are influential
officials in both local and international oil companies. In February
, one of the expatriates Serwa plays golf with asked her to
submit a proposal to supply them with lubricants. At the time, she
did not have a VAT certificate, one of the main requirements for her
to get the contract. She applied for the certificate from the Ghana
Revenue Authority’s Western Regional Office, but they did not issue
it on time, so Serwa missed the opportunity. Seven months later the
VAT certificate had still not been issued. Upon her persistent pursuit
of the VAT certificate, Serwa claimed she was told that the regional
office receives a limited number of VAT certificates from Accra, so pri-
ority is given to bigger companies rather than to small companies like
her own. Four other informants share similar experiences of not having
received a VAT certificate more than four to seven months after they
applied.
Case : Constraints to meeting the standards of IOCs
Razak () trained as a navigation officer in Southampton, UK, where
he worked until  before moving back to Ghana. In Ghana he con-
tinued working as a navigation officer on a ship until . According to
Razak, he quit his job in order to have time for his family since he some-
times spent up to two years away from home. Between  and ,
Razak bought six trucks to haul goods across the country. However,
the haulage business became unprofitable: ‘The drivers were not
sincere and the mechanics also did very poor maintenance of the
trucks.’ The truck drivers did not account the sales accurately. They
also took inadequate care of the trucks which resulted in frequent
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breakdowns. This led to the eventual collapse of his transport business.
In , he sold all the trucks and invested the money in a cleaning busi-
ness in Takoradi instead. While studying in the UK, Razak had worked
part-time in a cleaning company where he acquired knowledge about
the cleaning business.
Razak started a janitorial service company in Takoradi in  with
the help of his wife. They do interior decoration, cleaning, sales and in-
stallation of curtains. They also engage in laundry services, landscaping
and fumigation. They employ  people,  women and men. Due to
the arduous procedures and requirements from the banks it was difficult
for Razak to obtain a loan to expand the business. In , he got a con-
tract to provide janitorial services to a rural bank in Takoradi. He
became friends with the bank manager who eventually helped him
secure the loan though he did not have all the collateral and guarantees
required by the bank.
After expanding his business, Razak decided to take advantage of op-
portunities in the oil and gas sector. The main challenge has been the
difficulty of securing contracts with IOCs. As he puts it: ‘Contracts are
awarded on a “whom you know” basis and not necessarily [according
to] your skills or expertise to deliver.’ He noted that most of the IOCs
prefer to deal with other international companies: ‘The system is not
fair. The local content [law] is not working.’ Also, the IOCs are not inter-
ested in the services of local companies: ‘All they [IOCs] do is to award
contracts to foreign companies and locally formed expat companies.’ By
this he refers to the situation where local firms front for foreign
companies.
In  Razak sent proposals to several IOCs and service companies
to provide janitorial services but was not successful in getting any con-
tract. In , he was invited to a pre-tender seminar in Accra by one
of the IOCs he sent the proposals to. After the pre-tender conference
and evaluation, the IOC suggested that Razak should put in place
some structures to become an eligible service provider. These structures
included insurance of equipment and staff, as well as a workman com-
pensation package for employees. In addition to himself, the Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) and his wife, the Head of Décor
Department, they should have a management team consisting of two
supervisors and a health and safety manager. Razak found that the
requirements were beyond their financial capacity. Additionally,
meeting these requirements is not a guarantee that a contract will be
awarded.
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 A U S T I N D Z I W O R N U A B L O A N D R A G N H I L D O V E R Å
Eventually, with the help of a friend, Razak got a housekeeping con-
tract with an IOC. This contract lasted only for three months and was
abrogated without any reason. According to Razak, the official of the
IOC only called and informed him that their services are no longer
required. This contract was awarded to Razak by word of mouth
without any formalised agreement. Though disappointed, Razak was
happy for the exposure and experience which he considered important
for the profile of his business.
Case : The challenge of delivering food in a new context
Akua () is a native of Takoradi married to a pastor with five children.
She holds an A-level certificate, a diploma in IT, Intermediate Diploma
in Catering and is currently pursuing a Higher National Diploma
(HND) in Hotel, Catering and Industrial Management at Takoradi
Polytechnic. Since , Akua has been involved in small-scale agro pro-
cessing, catering and housekeeping for individuals and corporate orga-
nisations. Her investment capital was accumulated through personal
savings and support from her husband. She currently employs 
people (seven women and three men) all of whom have no professional
qualifications and all of whom are members of her husband’s church.
In , with the help of a church member who works with an oil
service company, she secured a contract to provide lunch for the
company. According to her, the contract lasted only for a short period
due to several challenges. She was unable to deliver the food on time
since she did not have a vehicle of her own. The vehicle she rented
was too expensive and never on schedule. Frequent traffic jams also
led to delays in delivering the lunch. There were occasions when she
delivered the lunch an hour or two late. This disrupted the oil com-
pany’s schedule and as a result, the contract was eventually abrogated.
In this case, Akua was able to secure a contract but lacks the expertise
and ability to meet the requirements of the oil service company.
Case : Lack of relevant networks as a barrier
Sedem () is a Subsea Engineer who studied and worked in the UK and
later in Dubai. His friend Nana () is an accountant based in Accra. In
, Sedem returned to Ghana from Dubai with the aim of starting an
oil and gas business. He did not have the financial capacity to start the
business on his own, so he contacted his friend Nana who agreed to
finance the company. In April , they partnered to start an oil and
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gas service company located in the Airport Residential Area in Accra.
Sedem then invited his friend Adjoa (), who was working in the UK,
to join them. Adjoa holds a master degree in Development
Management from the UK and she became the Business Development
Manager of their new company. They employ ten Ghanaians and seven
international consultants from the UK. They procure subsea and offshore
products, subsea engineering solutions, subsea and offshore ancillary ser-
vices and oil and gas development courses for Ghanaians.
According to Adjoa, they seek to provide internationally competitive
products and services in the oil and gas industry. This motivated
them to engage the services of the seven international consultants.
Additionally, they partnered with six international companies to
enable them to provide highly specialised products and services.
Difficulty in accessing credit facilities from banks is one of their major
challenges. Also, they have not been able to secure any contracts yet,
despite possessing all the requirements and expertise. In an instance,
they decided to provide a consultancy service to an IOC for free in
order to prove their competence. It was also the only basis on which
the IOC would have awarded them the contract. According to Adjoa,
they would not have secured the contract if they had charged the IOC
for it since they do not have contacts in government institutions and
IOCs.
D I S C U S S I O N
Outlook of the Ghanaian enterprises
From the various case studies, it is clear that the Ghanaian companies in
the oil and gas industry are generally small- and medium-scale busi-
nesses. This is not surprising, considering the general make-up of the
private sector in Sub-Saharan Africa where most businesses are SMEs
(Fafchamps, ; Abrefa-Gyan ; Meagher ; Damman et al.
; Yoshino ). As the case studies show, SMEs are ‘managed by
owners or part owners in a personalized way, and not through the
medium of formalized management structure’ (Abor & Quartey :
). This is a drawback as it contributes to the IOCs perception of
local firms being unprofessional.
In order to access wider opportunities in the oil and gas industry, local
companies project themselves as diversified. This characterises both
companies that have gained entry and those aspiring to secure entry
into the oil and gas sector. From their study of Ghanaian supply compan-
ies in the oil and gas industry, Damman et al. () concluded that by
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 A U S T I N D Z I W O R N U A B L O A N D R A G N H I L D O V E R Å
spreading their resources on many activities, local companies have inad-
equate capacity to build up the expertise, networks and production
system necessary to succeed in a sector requiring high expertise and spe-
cialisation. In this study, diversification by local companies that have
gained entry has been more successful. They now provide a wide
range of products and services to the oil and gas industry. However,
for the aspiring businesses in the oil and gas sector, to present or
‘brand’ themselves as diversified could be a drawback on their competi-
tiveness and eventual successful entry into the sector.
Networks, trust and embedded entrepreneurship
There are many informal ‘flows’ of more or less reliable information
about business opportunities in the oil and gas industry. Ghanaian entre-
preneurs need relevant, correct and timely information that can lead to
their successful entry and participation in the sector. However, lacking
official information sources, personal networks remain all-important
for local entrepreneurs in the oil and gas sector. As Fafchamps ()
argued, reliance on personal networks in African economies is a
solution to the lack of reliable sources of information. In the emergent
oil and gas sector, there is no authorised information source concerning
contracts and businesses opportunities available for Ghanaians. Neither
is there a comprehensive and updated database of local companies that
IOCs can use to search for local companies matching their needs.
Building trustworthy relationships are essential for local businesses’ ef-
fective participation in the oil and gas industry. Networks influence both
the access to and quality of information available to Ghanaian entrepre-
neurs. They are also essential for financial capital mobilisation. As we saw
in Case , Razak managed to secure a bank loan facilitated by his friend,
the bank manager. Davis (: ) described this as credit flows along
personalised and not merely economic relationships. For both the well-
established local companies and those aspiring to gain entry into the
oil and gas industry, networking with certain categories of actors is invalu-
able. Membership in a political party and friendship with bureaucrats is
particularly useful in linking local entrepreneurs with the IOCs as demon-
strated in Case . Similarly, Akua’s (Case ) church membership helped
her get an initial contract in spite of her obvious lack of capacity.
According to Granovetter (), trust is essential in circumstances
where individuals cannot rely on institutional arrangements. Typically,
in contexts characterised by imperfect information (Fafchamps,
), trust is crucial for the possibility to interact. Ghanaian
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entrepreneurs therefore attempt to build up trust both amongst each
other and in relation to the IOCs. As we have seen in this study, network-
ing is crucial for building a trustworthy reputation and for finding
trusted partners. By relying on ethnic networks, Ghanaian entrepre-
neurs minimise the risk of recruiting incompetent rig workers.
Similarly, the IOCs prefer to engage the few local firms they have built
trustworthy relations with.
The empirical analysis of local entrepreneurial activities in the oil and
gas industry showed that economic actions are embedded (Granovetter
; Aoyama et al. ; Bråten ) in social, cultural, religious and
political contexts. For example, as a Christian, Akua’s contact person
with the IOC feels a moral obligation to help those who need it, and
not the least his pastor’s wife. Even if he is aware that Akua does not
have the capacity to deliver, he is somehow obliged to offer her assist-
ance as expected of a Christian. Another socio-culturally embedded
practice by local entrepreneurs is the recruitment of workers from
their own ethnic group, which they justify as helping ‘their people’.
Capital conversion and local entrepreneurs’ strategies
Drawing on Bourdieu’s () distinction between social, cultural, eco-
nomic and symbolic capital, this paper explored the strategies deployed
by Ghanaian entrepreneurs in the oil and gas sector. As all the cases
show, possessing only one or two forms of capital is not sufficient to
enable local companies’ effective participation. Though Sedem and
Nana in Case  have the expertise and financial capacity, it was
difficult for them to secure contracts since they are not ‘well connected’
with the IOCs and state institutions. Conversely, Akua has connections
through her husband’s church, but lacks the financial resources and lo-
gistics to provide the service. Clearly, a skilful combination of several
forms of capital and conversion of a capital form in one social field
into another capital form in another field is necessary for local compan-
ies’ successful entry and participation in the oil and gas industry.
In the first case, a combination of James and Ekow’s experience from
the oil industry internationally with Ebo’s success as a transnational busi-
nessman is an important cultural capital which gave them a promising
image, a relevant form of symbolic capital (Bourdieu ) in the oil
and gas industry. Economic or physical capital in the form of Ebo’s
estates was used as collateral to secure a loan from the bank, constituting
the conversion of physical capital into financial capital. Additionally, the
use of an entire floor of Ebo’s building as an office, gave the company a
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‘modern’ outlook and promising impression of having a good reputa-
tion (constituting the conversion of economic capital into symbolic
capital). Some of Ebo’s properties were also converted into hostels
and training centres for their rig workers which facilitated the com-
pany’s diversification process. As a member of the NDC party, James
got assistance from a fellow party member at the GNPC who facilitated
their first contract. Here, social capital (Crossley ) was mobilised
from the political field to access social capital in the bureaucratic field
which resulted in a contract in the oil and gas industry.
Barriers to local entrepreneurial activities
The study identified several barriers to local entrepreneurship in the
oil and gas industry. An inefficient bureaucracy could make it
difficult for local entrepreneurs to meet some of the requirements by
IOCs. As Case  showed, Serwa missed out on an opportunity to gain
entry to the oil and gas sector due to delayed issuance of her VAT
certificate.
The strict and capital intensive requirements by the IOCs and other
foreign companies render some local resources and socio-culturally em-
bedded business strategies inadequate, irrelevant or problematic in the
oil and gas industry. For example, the IOCs requirement of more inter-
national standards in the management of small and medium local busi-
nesses indicates that they consider local expertise to be part of what
Ferguson () termed ‘unusable Africa’ in the field they operate
within. Their requirements can be considered as attempts to ‘transform’
the local companies into what the IOCs might consider viable businesses
that are ‘suitable’ in the international context. This greatly hinders local
entrepreneurial activities in the oil and gas industry.
In the resource curse and governance literature (Klueh et al. )
local content and participation is considered a useful tool to promote
linkage between the extractive sector and national economies. The lack
of institutional capacity to enforce these requirements could mean that
the effect of local content laws will remain very limited when it comes
to actual local participation. This situation is compounded by the compli-
city of state officials in influencing access to information and the awarding
of contracts. While the influence of state officials promotes some busi-
nesses, the participation of a majority of SMEs without political and bur-
eaucratic contacts could be potentially hindered in the oil and gas
industry. Moreover, such informal meddling by state officials could lead
to political clientelism in the oil and gas industry. In Ghana, as elsewhere
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in oil-producing countries such as Nigeria (see Ovadia ), this could
lead to elites’ accumulation of wealth.
C O N C L U S I O N
Although oil and other natural resources extraction play important roles
in the development of countries, the dominant discourse is that resource
extraction is a curse for most African economies (Sachs & Warner ;
Humphreys et al. ; Weszkalnys ). In the natural resource gov-
ernance literature, local content and participation is considered essen-
tial for the creation of linkage between the extractive sector and
national economies (Ovadia ).
However, as shown in this paper, apart from a few local businesses that
have managed to gain entry and are effectively participating in the oil
and gas industry, most local SMEs are not able to cross the capital con-
version barriers between the embedded local business environment and
the international oil industry in their attempt to secure contracts in the
oil and gas industry. Thus the strict and capital intensive requirements by
IOCs leads to a disconnect between the local context of entrepreneur-
ship and the multinational oil industry.
N O T E S
. The resource curse refers to the paradoxically slow growth and often poor social, economic, en-
vironmental and political performance of natural resource-abundant countries.
. See Ablo () for review of the local content law and its significance for local companies.
. The EDC is established by the government of Ghana and a consortium of International Oil
Companies (IOCs) (the Jubilee Partners) in  to provide training and capacity building for
Ghanaian SMEs in the oil and gas sector (see Ablo ).
. All names in this article are pseudonyms.
. GNPC is the state company doing exploration. Until the establishment of the Ghana Petroleum
Commission in , GNPC was in charge of regulation.
. Names of local companies in this article are pseudonyms.
. An FPSO is an offshore production facility that processes and stores oil and gas, which is peri-
odically offloaded to shuttle tankers or transmitted via pipelines.
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