A millionaire for a week

After a week in Ghana I discovered that being a millionaire does not necessarily mean that you are wealthy as I imagine people in many African and South American countries already know. At the time of my visit the exchange rate was US$1=9200 Cedi. This results in some rather bizarre transactions. A meal in a resturant could cost 1Million Cedi, an evening out having a few drinks will cost several hundred thousand cedi, a taxi ride between 30 thousand and 100 thousand Cedi...

Amazingly the largest note available in Ghana at the time of my visit was 20000 Cedi and banks will often supply your cash requirements with only 5000 Cedi notes.... this results in carrying large wads of money around. A case in point was our sunday buffet lunch for 4 people which resulted in a bill of over 1 Million Cedi... fortunately Darren came to the rescue with a bag full of money:

A Trip to Ghana

Over the past week I was fortunate enough to make a trip to Ghana for business purposes. The contrast between Ghana and Nigeria is almost unbelievable. My first impressions of Accra were very good.

After a rather gruelling experience in leaving Lagos arrival in Ghana was like the exact opposite. From the time the plane landed to arriving at my hotel took less than 30 minutes. Customs was a breeze and my bags arrived almost immediately on the carousel which was a total pleasure.

Driving through the streets the first thing that struck me was how clean the city is in comparison with Lagos. The other thing that I really noticed was that the drivers seem to obey the rules of the road and that there were no okadas (motorbike taxis). The difference between the two cities is almost overwhelming.