Nigerian Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Contemporary Ghana: Insights on Locational/Sectoral Niches and Inter-Generational (Dis)Continuities

Abstract

Scholarship on immigrant entrepreneurship tends to focus on those in the developed world. In this paper, I attempt to shift the balance by focusing on Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurs in contemporary Ghana, specifically their locational and sectoral niches as well as inter-generational continuities and discontinuities. I do these by examining the outcomes of broad-based field work employing in-depth interviews and observations of these immigrant entrepreneurs in Accra - the capital, Kumasi—the second largest city after Accra, and Ashaiman—a sprawling sub-urban settlement. What emerges from analysis and discussion of empirical data is that, among other things, the activities of Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurs in contemporary Ghana reveal both old and new strands of sectoral participations, and the dynamics of locational and sectoral participations also evincing elements of precinctization (albeit incipient in form) and specialisation. Further, the nature of sectoral participation appears to embody shapes of continuity and discontinuity with those of their earlier generations in Ghana. These findings provide introductory glimpse to the unexplored phenomenon of Nigerian immigrant entrepreneurship in contemporary Ghana and further chart a way to compare to their predecessors.