Podcast
Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Hosted by Derrick Abaitey · EN
Konnected Minds: Success, Wealth & Mindset. This show helps ambitious people crush limiting beliefs and build unstoppable confidence.
Created and Hosted by Derrick Abaitey
YT: https://youtube.com/@KonnectedMinds?si=s2vkw92aRslgfsV_
IG: https://www.instagram.com/konnectedminds/
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Podcast in Africa | Podcast in Ghana | Podcast in Nigeria | Best Podcast in Nigeria | Africa's best podcast
247episodes
Episodes
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Segment: Money Won't Fall From The Sky- Waiting For Capital Is Killing Your Business Dreams In Ghana
Today00:09:25Summary readyIn this raw and unfiltered episode of Konnected Minds Podcast, Derrick Abaitey sits down with Samuel Agyapong — founder of Banana Bread GH — for a conversation that dismantles the myth that you need to travel abroad or raise millions to build a real business in Ghana.Samuel didn't travel. He didn't get investor money. He started with 600 cedis and an MTN loan — and built two bakeries, all from social media.But this conversation goes deeper than just the success story. Samuel breaks down the brutal truths most young Ghanaians refuse to hear: why 70% of people think you need to go abroad to make it, why investors won't bet on you until you prove yourself first, why some people are born to be employees and that's okay, and why the real opportunity in Ghana isn't in chasing trends — it's in solving problems nobody else is paying attention to.From getting his products authenticated by CSIR and FDA, to doing stability tests without preservatives, to waking up at 4 a.m. every day for something he loves — Samuel's story is proof that the system is broken, yes, but it's also full of gaps you can fill if you're willing to start small, stay visible, and build a track record before asking anyone for a dime.This is not motivation. This is the manual.🎟️ Konnected Minds Live — Kumasi | September 9th Don't miss it. https://www.konnectedmindslive.com/
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"I Was NEVER Paid For That Video" - Shalimar Abbas FINALLY Speaks On Her Arrest, The New Force & Deportation From Ghana
6d ago00:41:13Summary readyIn this powerful episode of Konnected Minds Podcast, Derrick Abaitey sits down with Shalimar Abbas - the former spokesperson of The New Force political movement - for her FIRST ON-RECORD interview in Ghana since her arrest, detention, and deportation.Shalimar opens up about everything: growing up as the "different kid" in Belgium, winning her first beauty pageant, falling in love with Ghana, her time at GHONE TV, the viral New Force video that changed her life, the call from immigration, 7 days in the National Intelligence Bureau cells, being abandoned by the movement she fronted, her ECOWAS court victory, and her powerful comeback as a diplomatic affairs advisor working with governments across Africa.This is a story of betrayal, faith, resilience, and redemption - and a side of the New Force saga the public has never heard before.🎟️ KONNECTED MINDS LIVE 2026 — KUMASI Join 1,600+ young entrepreneurs and aspiring leaders at KNUST on the 9th of September. Grab your tickets here: https://www.konnectedmindslive.com/
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Africa's #1 Event Planner: "Marry The Wrong Man And You'll Lose Your Dreams" - Funke Bucknor-Obrute (FBO)
2w ago01:25:28Summary readyIn this episode of Konnected Minds, Derrick Abaitey sits down with Funke Bucknor-Obrute (FBO) — the woman behind Zapphaire Events, Africa's biggest event planning company. For over 24 years, FBO has built an empire defined by excellence, customer obsession, and an unshakable mindset.But this conversation goes far beyond business.From quitting law after watching a J.Lo movie, to charging her first client ₦10,000, to building a team that runs Africa's most exclusive events without her in the room - FBO opens up about the real cost of building something that lasts.We also get into the conversation everyone's talking about: marriage, women, men, and the weight African women carry. FBO holds nothing back — and the debate gets HEATED.If you're building a business, a brand, or a life worth living, this one is for you.📍 Konnected Minds Live — Kumasi | September 9th Don't miss it. https://www.konnectedmindslive.com/🔥 KEY TAKEAWAYS▸ Why aiming for 101% is the only standard▸ How to build a team that delivers without you in the room▸ The mindset shift that turns customers into lifetime clients▸ Why the right partner can make or break your career▸ The truth about wealth most Africans get wrong▸ How to find joy in a busy, demanding life━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ ABOUT THE GUESTFunke Bucknor-Obrute a pioneering Nigerian entrepreneur, lawyer, and one of Africa's most influential voices in the event planning and experiential industry.IG: https://www.instagram.com/funkebucknor/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ ABOUT THE HOSTDerrick Abaitey is a Ghanaian entrepreneur, podcast host, and personal development advocate.IG: https://www.instagram.com/derrick.abaitey#KonnectedMinds #FunkeBucknor #DerrickAbaitey #AfricanEntrepreneurs #WomenInBusiness #BuildingWealth #NigeriaPodcast #AfricaBusiness #EventPlanning #FBO #PodcastNigeria #GhanaPodcast #SuccessMindset #FemaleFounders
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Segment: I Fire Anyone Who Fools Around - No Cousins or Brothers Work in My Company
2w ago00:11:20Summary readyFrom working 27 years in corporate across Japan and South Africa to investing over 2 million US dollars in a catfish farm in Ghana to learning the brutal truth that nobody will listen to you when you tell them how to think about risk even if you were the only black equity analyst in Japan nominated by Nikkei as one of the top 15 analysts because you need to let your life shine and people will see what is actually happening to you proving that actions speak louder than credentials and experience, the former senior portfolio manager at Mazi asset management who became head of research managing billions in assets for clients but always knew he would come back to Ghana to do something even though he could have come earlier because he was making very very good money and his aim was capital accumulation working for companies that paid him very well, the stock market expert who survived the Japanese bubble burst when banks collapsed and companies had issues watching as a foreigner wondering what was going to happen but fortunately by the grace of God survived the turbulence when his company was acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ Bank and the parent company was taken over by a consortium led by SoftBank Masayoshi Son, the analyst who moved from the sell side investment banking where companies like Databank and GCB Securities have access to the stock market and just recommend stocks to the buy side where you receive money and invest in stocks for clients creating portfolios and putting actual money in so if it falls the client is going to talk to you unlike the sell side where if the stock falls you hide and don't take calls, the entrepreneur who toured with the idea of setting up his own asset management company in Ghana but looking at the Ghana Stock Exchange set up in 1989 or 1990 the trading volume is dominated by probably one company MTN followed by GCB making it very difficult as a portfolio manager in South Africa to get stocks to buy in Ghana because the liquidity is not there and if you found an interesting company you don't get financial data wondering why the stock exchange allowed those companies to be listed when they are not providing their financials, the visionary who had aquaculture in his mind along with a fitness club and a garage because he came to Ghana and saw Ghanaians fixing cars while foreigners counted the money asking why can't I do it when it's just a question of getting the spare parts getting somebody to look after the warehouse very well and the Ghanaians doing it and probably giving them shares in whatever you set up, the risk thinker who explains that the risk concept in Asia is different from what we are taught in Ghana because when we say something is risky we think it's dangerous and you lose money but that's not how they think about risk and if you look at the Chinese characters for risk the two characters pronounced kiki mean danger and opportunity so you see danger and opportunity together, the opportunity seeker who says when you see risk you don't run away but ask is it very dangerous and where is the opportunity and is the opportunity bigger than the danger because he grew up there and lived with them so it became part of him and when he looks at Ghana yes it's risky but where lies the opportunity and where is the danger, the founder and CEO of Wadicair Farms the award winning farm of 2025 who moved to Ghana in 2021 after working many years in corporate making very very good money and moving to South Africa to join Mazi asset management was actually a huge pay cut but his aim was to set up a black owned asset management company where he was head of research and senior portfolio manager for a mandate in Africa excluding South Africa.Host: Derrick Abaitey
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Segment: Banks Won't Fund Young Farmers - The Risk Problem Keeping Ghana's Agriculture Small
2w ago00:10:44Summary readyFrom understanding why parents pushed their children into white collar jobs instead of farming because weeding was used as punishment in school making people grow up thinking farming is for those who cannot read and write to learning the brutal truth that we import 100 million dollars worth of tomatoes from Burkina Faso every year and if a young person can target just 1% of that market that's one million dollars in opportunity but the 25 year old guy doesn't know where to get 50,000 cedis to start and banks are not willing to co-invest because they get high returns from government bonds instead of taking equity in startups proving that there's a big industry in Ghana about talking on problems every day but nothing is done and we need to move from talking to working on the ground, the entrepreneur whose grandparents were big cocoa farmers in Ofori area and grew up on cocoa farms but was pushed into education because parents wanted their children to become doctors or engineers so they could tell their friends my son is a doctor my daughter is a pilot instead of saying my child is a farmer which doesn't bring societal respect or dignity in Ghana today, the reality that when you go to the UK or Japan or USA or Brazil the rich people are farmers milking cows and doing large scale agriculture but in Ghana we've pushed agriculture to the background and left farming for peasant farmers working on one acre or one plot of land feeding their children with agriculture extension officers advising them instead of thinking about large scale farms, the wisdom that education is very very important but we need to revamp the way we teach people because when he was growing up they punished you and asked you to go and weed so you grew up thinking weeding is a form of punishment and farming is exaggerated punishment so people are not going to do it and the farmer cannot even send his son to school, the vision that if we are able to revamp the way we teach and explain agriculture to people they will get to know that you can be a PhD and till the ground and make a lot of money because you can identify a problem like importing tomatoes from Burkina Faso and supply the ladies who are going to buy those tomatoes creating jobs and wealth, the fish farmer who started Wadicair Farms in 2023 with 2.5 million US dollars investment now doing revenues of maybe 750,000 cedis yearly and growing because 2023 was virtually zero but 2024 and 2025 are looking better with more people patronizing the products and off-takers coming from Canada Germany Ivory Coast and locally selling to Max Mart Talegon Max Mart La Bony and Focus Trading in Kumasi, the product innovator who created oven dried sliced catfish instead of just the traditional curled catfish because growing up mothers would finish the soup and have to divide the fish and it's hard when it's curled so slicing it makes it easier for them to give portions to children while the father gets the big curled one but initially people asked where is the head how do I know this is not snake so now they include the head and people are buying the sliced version, the employer who tells his workers you are here not just for a salary because if we make money in this company Kwame is not going to just keep it to himself and his family but will set up a bonus system so workers can get sizeable bonuses to buy blocks and start building something for their families because they live around the village and he wants them to build generational wealth too, the businessman whose motivation for starting the farm was money of course because it's not philanthropy but he doesn't have to squeeze money out of his people and if he can make decent profits selling at 100 why should he sell at 150 or 200 when he has his targets and knows where the business is going.Host: Derrick Abaitey
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Segment: No Family in My Business - I Exclude Relatives to Protect My Company from Undermining
3w ago00:10:52Summary readyFrom understanding why family members should never run your business unless they're your wife or daughters to learning the brutal truth that when you're not around your brother or cousin will undermine you saying oh because I'm the brother do this meanwhile it's not something you recommend and workers will be afraid to challenge them because he's the uncle of the CEO pulling your company down which is exactly why the owner of Wadiqa in Japan said if you live in this part of the world and you want your business to thrive don't work with family, the catfish farmer who sat with Japanese business owners and studied how Toyota Honda Suzuki Panasonic and Sony built generational companies where the structure was so solid that when one guy started it his son became boss his grandson became boss and the family has interests but the company survives for generations proving that culturally the ethics there are very different and he never heard of somebody say I'll not let my uncle work here in Japan but looking at Ghana he had to make that decision, the Christian entrepreneur who looks at his company as the property of the God he serves and has to manage it well so you can't fool around there and see him sitting down watching you destroy it because if you're not a Christian you will not understand but that's his concept and he doesn't waste time firing people who fool around, the business owner who admits the issue is founders have so much passion when they start but the people they hire don't have that passion and you have to get people who buy into your passion to grow your business because if that passion just stays with you and doesn't percolate to the other guys around you then when you're not around they can't move the business forward but if you're able to sell your passion into them or infuse your passion into them even if you're not around they know this is how this business should be moving, the aquaculture entrepreneur whose business started in 2023 not making profits yet but seeing revenues growing growing because he has a lot of assets being depreciated and depreciation is heavy making the cashfish business complicated when some people come and tell oh I started with 500 I made this amount of money but if you look at the cost variables you're going to buy fingerlings and if you don't buy good fingerlings you might lose them so give yourself maybe 5% mortality rate, the fish farmer who breaks down that feed is about 70% of your total cost of production and you can't reduce the price of feed because the company making the feed wants to make money and you don't control them so how do you make money when your feed cost is 70% leaving you with maybe 30% to play around with and you have to pay your workers and transport the feed to your farm, the processor who decided to dry and package fish instead of selling it fresh because when you feed it to a certain point somebody comes to buy and tells you I'm not going to buy it at one KG for 40 cedis I'll give you 30 cedis and if you say no he goes away and comes back a week later saying 30 cedis or even lower and you are buying feed to feed this fish so out of desperation some farmers sell and cry at night, the marketer who explains that people go to Makola and Kaneshie market to buy dried fish because it's a staple in our diet so if you dry and package you become more competitive and don't rely on point and kill people coming to buy your fish fresh because if they don't come you're in trouble and if they buy at a lower price your price realization is not that high, the strategic thinker who says before the four Ps of marketing you need to do research about what is the demand for your product where you are because if you're located in Kwintanpo and you want to sell in Accra you're in big trouble and consumer preferences are very different so you need to look at what do these people want and it may not even be beautiful packaging.Host: Derrick Abaitey
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Segment: Rule of 72 - I Doubled My Corporate Salary and Invested $2 Million in Ghana Farming
3w ago00:09:17Summary readyFrom understanding that danger and opportunity are the same word in Japanese to learning why the brutal truth about entrepreneurship in Ghana is that you can have all the knowledge about risk management from working in top corporate jobs in Japan and South Africa managing billions in assets but nobody will listen to you when you say this is how you should consider risk because you need to let your life shine and people will see what is actually happening to you proving that actions speak louder than credentials, the former head of research and senior portfolio manager at Mazi asset management in South Africa who moved to Ghana in 2021 after working many years in corporate making very very good money because his aim was capital accumulation knowing he wanted to set up something back home but needed the financial foundation first, the investment expert who breaks down the rule of 72 explaining that if the interest rate is 24% you divide 72 by 24 to get 3 which means your money will double in three years if you invest in an asset giving you 24% per annum and reinvest the interest proving that when Ghana treasury bill rates were about 30% people could have doubled their money if they knew this but for lack of knowledge my people perish, the financial literacy advocate who reveals the mistake people make in Ghana is putting all their money in the bank thinking they have 2 million in savings when actually that deposit is a liability for the bank which uses your money to invest in Ghana government funds getting 25% to 30% return while the spread is so high they pay their workers and get their fault checks and you get peanuts from interest while they are living on your savings, the reality that banks bring pretty ladies when they want you to borrow money to buy your house because they understand the rule of 72 and know your debt will double after a season but when it's time for collection they bring much more men to collect their money and if you're not able to pay they take away your house and you are in trouble, the wisdom that if you go to his village in Bocancere people don't understand finance proving that financial education should be paramount in our country and everything is confined to Accra but we need to be more practical with the teaching of economics and finance, the careful expert who has rules and has to be careful whatever he says because it's not like he's recommending for anybody to go and buy this or that so privately he can talk to his friends saying this looks interesting you can do this but in a forum like this if you say this company is good somebody will go and buy then lose money and he's going to be in trouble like a false prophecy, the portfolio manager who admits you don't get it right all the time and just wants to be right maybe 51% or 52% of the time and his client will make money because if he buys Sony and Panasonic in consumer electronics but forgets about Samsung and Samsung goes high while Sony stays there he loses relatively and the client is going to be upset asking why didn't you buy Samsung why did you stay with Sony, the entrepreneur whose balance sheet now is about 12 million Ghana cedis but if he actually looks at the money invested it's about two million plus dollars because he worked for very good companies was paid very well and saved a lot of money so when he was coming back to Ghana his plan was ready with his business plan ready knowing what he was going to do with projected returns everything on his computer.Host: Derrick Abaitey
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How To Raise Money For Your Business In Africa | Diane Akuffo
3w ago01:06:04Summary readyShe turned down $3 MILLION. She's raised $1.5M+ for African entrepreneurs. And she has some brutal truths about why YOU haven't been funded yet.In this episode of Konnected Minds, Derrick Abaitey sits down with business consultant and Fundvestor founder Diane Akuffo - the woman behind one of the highest investor success rates in Ghana (80%).She breaks down EXACTLY how to:✅ Build a pitch deck investors actually take seriously✅ Make your business "investor-ready" (most Ghanaian businesses are NOT)✅ Choose between equity, SAFE notes, and convertible loans✅ Avoid the 60/40 trap that cost one founder his entire business✅ Find investors — and what to send them BEFORE you reach out✅ Use the AI tool that's reviewing pitch decks in seconds (Mangro AI)🎟️ Konnected MInds Live Kumasi, Sept 9th. https://www.konnectedmindslive.com/Guest: Diane AkuffoIG: https://www.instagram.com/dianeakuffo/Host: Derrick AbaiteyIG: https://www.instagram.com/derrick.abaiteyYT: https://www.youtube.com/@DerrickAbaiteyJoin Konnected Academy: https://www.triibe.io/konnected-academy🎟️ Konnected MInds Live Kumasi, Sept 9th. https://www.konnectedmindslive.com/Listen to the podcast on:Apple Podcast - http://tinyurl.com/4ttwbdxeSpotify - http://tinyurl.com/3he8hjfpJoin this channel: /@konnectedmindsFOLLOW ► https://linktr.ee/konnectedminds#Podcast #businesspodcast #AfricanPodcast #Ghanapodcast #NigerianPodcast
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Segment: Recirculating Aquaculture System - The Technology That Cuts Water Costs and Scales Profit
3w ago00:09:13Summary readyFrom understanding why operating profit margin multiplied by asset turnover determines your return on assets to learning the brutal truth that in aquaculture you can start small with 20,000 cedis drying fish the traditional way but as you make money from the local market you upgrade your equipment step by step until you're exporting to Europe where they test for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that stick on fish skin when you smoke with firewood and might cause cancer which is why investing in modern drying machines matters even though it costs more upfront, the catfish farmer who explains that retailers have slim margins of 2% to 3% but high turnover of 2 to 4 times per year while companies like Fanuc making robots have very high margins but low turnover of 0.5 because they only produce maybe 50 robots per annum proving that scale is everything in the fish business and if you're doing a thousand fish you're going to be in trouble but if you're doing 10,000 tons or 50,000 tons you have leverage over feed companies like Raanan and Coppens because they know you're going to buy from them, the entrepreneur with a 100 kilowatt solar farm who admits he doesn't have the managerial resources to be thinking about making his own feed when companies can provide it and the real strategy to lower costs is just scale not trying to buy maize soybeans methionine and all those ingredients yourself when you should be focused on your fish and marketing marketing marketing, the aquaculture business owner who breaks down the regulatory maze you must navigate before starting a catfish farm in Ghana where the Fisheries Commission charges about 1,000 cedis for permits for both grow out and hatchery operations but the EPA charges around 20,000 cedis after doing environmental research and writing reports based on your capacity, the farmer who uses boreholes and has to deal with the Water Resources Commission which is in charge of all water bodies in Ghana and charges you for water you're drawing from the ground because you're using it to make money though they can't monitor all the farms using boreholes but his farm is right by the road so they can see the tanks and he has to comply, the wisdom that catfish farming is absolutely profitable and tilapia is very popular because any corner you turn in Ghana you see a Banco joint with tilapia and imagine the volume of tilapia we consume every day every week every month while catfish is just a niche but Nigerians have taught us you can actually grill catfish and people in the diaspora want dried catfish to make Banco joint and soup and Indians are waking up to the fact that it has a lot of meat and is not as bony as tilapia so the demand is actually growing, the strategic thinker who says you don't have to narrow yourself to Ghana as your market but think West Africa is my market and then the whole world is my market going through this step by step by step always doing your Japanese due diligence researching the background of where you want to have your catfish farm, the resirculating aquaculture system expert who uses RAS technology where water comes into the tank he feeds the fish they poop into the water and conventionally this water would be flushed out into gutters but in resirculating aquaculture he moves this water into a mechanical filter where the solids are filtered then it goes through a biological filter where any bacteria is eliminated, the minister for fisheries and aquaculture Mrs. Emilia Arthur who came and tried to streamline regulations because farmers had to deal with several regulators and it was really cumbersome and very expensive so they want the Fisheries Commission to be a one stop shop which is very welcome for the industry, the reality that if you're using Ghana Water Company your water bills are going to go up but you have to make a decision.Host: Derrick Abaitey
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Segment: 100 Kilowatt Solar Powers My Farm - How I Beat Ghana's High Energy Costs to Build Wealth
3w ago00:08:56Summary readyFrom building a 100 kilowatt solar powered fish farm with greenhouses to understanding why most Ghanaian companies die with their founders, and why the brutal truth about entrepreneurship is that creating generational wealth means moving away from the one man show mentality where if you're not here the business cannot survive because knowledge and wisdom doesn't reside in only one person and you need to put structures in place that allow the company to thrive even when you're gone which is exactly what happened to great companies in Ghana set up by people from Makropom and other places where when the founder passed away the company died because maybe the structure wasn't great and somebody took over and said I'm not going to do this leaving workers jobless proving that without proper management and vision the business collapses with the founder, the entrepreneur who studied Japanese companies like Toyota Honda Suzuki Panasonic and Sony where one guy started it the structure was there his son became boss his grandson became boss and the family has interests but because the structure is solid the company survives for generations teaching that generational wealth creation is not just about making money but about building something that will take care of your wife your daughters your grandchildren and provide jobs for workers long after you're gone, the fish farmer who decided to breed fish in tanks under tunnels in greenhouses so workers can go in anytime even when it's raining and built his own hatchery for constant supply of fingerlings because selling raw fish makes some money but processing the fish drying it and packaging it with machines is where the margins are high, the businessman who brought in machines to dry and package fish but admits he made a mistake not securing offtakers before starting the project because he was not living in Ghana and didn't trust people to do the research for him and the industry is so fragmented with everybody claiming they're doing 1,000 catfish or 5,000 fish and there are so many lies on YouTube with people getting caught thinking if they buy 1,000 catfish they'll make this amount of money when it's not like that and unfortunately people are falling for such advice, the solar power advocate who saw that energy cost is very high in Ghana and in Asia where he worked in Japan electricity for industrial use is actually cheaper than electricity for households and Singapore is even cheaper but in Ghana it's not like that making it nearly impossible to grow industries with such high cost of power which is why he installed 100 kilowatt solar on his farm to power everything with ECG as backup and two generators as additional backups, the aquaponics dreamer who initially wanted fish water to flow through floating beds where you plant lettuce on styrofoam and the plants pick up the nitrates filtering the water so you don't waste a lot of water and only top up every three months while harvesting vegetables but decided Ghanaians don't eat vegetables so he converted everything into tanks and got stuck with waste water wondering what to do instead of flushing it into gutters like some people do, the innovator who built greenhouses and directed waste water into tanks to irrigate them now producing red and yellow bell peppers after doing tomatoes and cucumbers and buying three more greenhouses from a supplier that will be installed soon bringing the total to six greenhouses optimizing revenue by going back to competency and figuring out which vegetables to grow, the realization that an old friend told him something funny that a man going into retirement is more concerned about losing their money than their life and at this age how long is he going to live so what is he leaving behind for his wife his daughters his future grandchildren. Host: Derrick Abaitey
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