Segment: Ghana Won't Wait for You to Figure It Out - Come Prepared or Watch Your Dream Collapse. - Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey

Podcast Summary: Ghana Won't Wait for You to Figure It Out – Come Prepared or Watch Your Dream Collapse

Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Date: January 19, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode is focused on providing practical advice for anyone considering relocating to Ghana—either returning home or making a new start. The discussion draws from real experiences to underscore the necessity of planning, understanding cultural nuances, managing expectations, and developing adaptability. The conversation emphasizes that moving to Ghana is rewarding, but only for those who arrive fully prepared, ready to face infrastructural, healthcare, and cultural differences.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance of Comprehensive Planning

Lifestyle Adjustments:
- Moving to Ghana requires significant lifestyle changes—drivers, household needs, and daily routines will likely differ.
- “Think about the lifestyle change that you’ll have to go through when you come… these are things that you should write down.” – (A, 00:04)
Logistical Considerations:
- Plan basic needs: private transportation, costs involved in shipping vehicles, customs processes, length of initial stay.
- Recommend a 1-3 month exploratory visit to “understand the system because that will help you in your planning.” – (A, 00:24)
Embassy & Legal Matters:
- Check if your country has an embassy in Ghana for guidance and support.
- Investigate tax obligations: many expatriates are unaware their home countries might still require them to file or pay taxes, leading to “double taxation.” – (A, 00:58)

2. Healthcare & Medical Needs

Availability of Treatment:
- Assess the availability of medication and healthcare for pre-existing conditions.
- Know which hospitals and specialists are nearby; proximity can be life-saving due to unreliable ambulance services.
- “In Ghana you call the 191 emergency… and there were these women, ‘Hey, we take calls and we can’t even get an ambulance because we don’t have enough ambulances.’ So they’ll get a call and they’ll be like, oh, there’s no ambulances. Pick a taxi to go to the hospital.” – (A, 02:18)
Emergency Response Limitations:
- Unlike abroad, emergency services are often limited. People frequently use taxis for medical emergencies.
- Social priority for ambulances is low—“they’ll move for a politician in an SUV before they’ll move for an ambulance trying to get through traffic.” – (A, 03:02)

3. Infrastructure & Day-to-Day Living

City vs. Off-grid Living:
- Important to “see what it’s like off-grid” before fully relocating.
- Adjust expectations around utilities: power cuts, water shortages—even in affluent neighborhoods.
- Prepare financially for unplanned expenses; for example, keeping “an extra 5,000 cedis every month in your bank account in case your car has an issue because of the way the roads are.” – (A, 06:21)
Adapting to Resource Limitations:
- Learn how to manage limited water supply (sometimes as little as “half a bucket” for bathing), and power outages with generators or solar power.

4. Cultural Integration and Social Nuances

Family & Community Dynamics:
- Those with African or Caribbean heritage may adjust more easily due to similar experiences or family guidance.
- “Family members, even when they lived abroad, will be like, hey, back home, you know, this and this…” – (A, 04:58)
Daily Etiquette & Communication:
- Greeting elders: In Ghana, it is customary to greet everyone from right to left when entering a room.
- Potential cultural faux-pas for newcomers unfamiliar with these customs: “I’ve heard Ghanaians have long conversations about how someone didn’t greet them…” – (A, 07:21)
Relationships & Marriage:
- Displays of affection are much more reserved in public than in North America or Europe.
- Traditional marriage ceremonies are highly valued and integrating can require understanding and participating in these traditions.

5. Mindset for Success: Motivation, Discipline, and Advice

Building an Influential Platform:
- The guest shares that their journey toward helping Africans discover Africa began with motivation, shifting toward discipline as consistency and audience relevance became crucial.
- “[At first] it was motivation. Then I’ll say discipline was next… once I decided that I wanted to continue with this, I had to be disciplined with how I was doing it.” – (A, 08:17)
Best Life Advice:
- A memorable piece from her father:
  - “No matter what happens, life goes on.” – (A, 09:13)
- Simple yet impactful encouragement for anyone facing setbacks in the relocation process.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Emergency Services:
- “Pick a taxi to go to the hospital.” – (A, 02:40)
On Cross-Cultural Relationships:
- “I’ve heard Ghanaians have long conversations about how someone didn’t greet them and how offended they are…” – (A, 07:27)
On Mindset:
- “No matter what happens, life goes on.” – (A citing father, 09:13)

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

00:00–04:00: Planning move logistics, embassy tips, tax and car shipment advice
04:00–07:00: Healthcare realities, ambulance services, and city versus off-grid living
07:00–08:00: Cultural adaptation: etiquette, daily norms, and relationship dynamics
08:00–08:59: Motivation and discipline—how the guest built her YouTube presence
09:00–09:22: Best life advice and episode wrap-up

Conclusion

This episode of Konnected Minds provides a clear-eyed, practical look at what it takes to successfully relocate to Ghana. Derrick Abaitey and his guest dispel romanticized notions of new beginnings, emphasizing instead the need for meticulous planning, readiness for infrastructure and cultural differences, and above all, resilience. For anyone considering “moving back” or seeking success in Ghana, this episode is a grounded, invaluable resource.

Transcript

A (0:00)

You can just go sit on a bench. The kids are playing out. Yes. So think about the lifestyle change that you'll have to go through when you come. So all of these are things that you should write down. When you're planning to come to Ghana. Do you want to have your own car? Do you want to buy your car abroad and ship it to Ghana? Look at what is the shipping cost to bring your car to Ghana? What is the cost at the ports that you might. These are all things you should do when you come and you stay for one to three months to understand the system because that will help you in your planning. When you just come, boom, land your bags. I've moved to Ghana and you've not planned. It becomes challenging for you, especially when you have kids. You really need to plan. The other thing is look out for your government embassy. If you're coming from the U.S. the U.S. embassy Canada, the Canadian embassy. If is your. Does your embassy have an office in this country? You may want to go visit. You may want to talk to somebody there to get some ideas of how you would adjust to life here. When you move here, does your country still require you to pay taxes? Some countries require you to still pay taxes back home. Whatever you earn here, they may still want you to pay taxes in your home country. When you're here. Some countries don't mind, you don't have to pay taxes. Look into that. Can you afford to be living here, making money here, paying taxes here and paying taxes in your home country? Those are things you should also look at. These are all things that you should be considering also. Do you have pre existing health conditions? If you, if you have pre existing health conditions, find out the medications you take. Can you get them in Ghana regularly so that you don't miss any of your medication? Are there doctors that specialize in whatever illness it is that you have that you can have here? That would be your person that you go to when you have any ailments that you need to be taken care of. Find identify the hospitals that you want to be close to. If you have a pre existing condition that is serious, you may want to live not far from the hospital because the ambulance system here sucks. You can call 911 in Canada and the US and get an ambulance in a reasonable time that will show up at your door with paramedics who are there to treat you and can save you. In Ghana you call the 191emergency. I have actually spent time at the emergency services when I was hosting the TV show Maternal Health channel TV series. We went to the emergency service to see how is their call center and there were these women. Hey, we take calls and we can't even get an ambulance because we don't have enough ambulances. So they'll get a call and they'll be like, oh, there's no ambulances. Pick a taxi to go to the hospital. And that's why you see people getting in taxis, getting in private cars to go to the hospital, because we don't have enough ambulances for emergency services. And people don't even move for the ambulance. They'll move for a politician in an SUV before they'll move for an ambulance trying to get through traffic. So understand that the emergency services here are also not going to be the same as they are over there. So these are all things you need to plan before you decide if. If you're going to move to Ghana, you know, do you want to be off grid or do you want to be in the city, you know, and if that's the case, you should go and see what is it like off grid. Can you handle going somewhere where you might have to bath in a bucket? Do you know that sometimes even in the richest neighborhoods, the power goes out? Will you have the money to buy a generator, fuel it with the petrol you need to keep it, to keep it going to make sure that you maintain the comforts that you may want. Do you have the money to install solar power? If you want solar power as an option? These are all things that people should be planning and thinking about before they make a move, because it's not a get on the plane move and then jump in and everything's the same. It's not. So you have to prepare yourself. And I think the people who have a tendency to adjust easier in Ghana, not easy, but easier, are usually Ghanaians or other Africans because they have a family connection and, and an understanding of how the system is. Because family members, even when they lived abroad, will be like, hey, back home, you know, this and this and this. Hey, back home, you know, this and this. So you kind of have an idea, even if you've never lived here. And then the Caribbeans, a lot of the Caribbeans, like Jamaicans, I meet people from Trinidad, they're like, oh, we have the same problem back home. Oh, yeah, we have the same thing, the same issue. Right? Where we came from in the islands, this kind of stuff happens too. So they have. So they give more grace to some of the challenges because they've experienced it where they came from. Whereas somebody who comes from a society like the US Or Canada, you know, they have never experienced something, and they're just like, what the heck is this? You know, like, Canada, we have endless water in Canada. People leave their tap on, they're brushing their teeth, the water's just running, running, running, running. People aren't thinking about the fact the water's just running like the water's like, endless. Canada is one of the countries that has the most fresh water water. So people don't think about it consciously. The way you might hear your pipe gets turned off. Now you have half a bucket of water, and you have to learn how to bathe with half a bucket of water somewhere. So these are all things you have to think about. Can you adjust to some of these challenges that you'll face here? So with the planning, that's all part of it is knowing that this is all possible of what you might face. Having extra money in the bank every month, an extra 5,000 cities every month in your bank account. In case your car has an issue because of the way the roads are. You could be driving, and all of a sudden you hear something underneath your car. Oh, my goodness, what's that? Then you find out something has, like, shifted because of the way you went over a bump or something. Some of the speed bumps are made too high, and then they just click on something underneath your car. And now you got to go get it fixed. You have to think about the culture, that there's cultural differences that you may need to learn and understand. And especially if you come here and you find a mate. Because people come, they're looking for a spouse, they meet someone, and sometimes the challenges that they have, cultural differences. Cultural communication can be different. So little things like you might walk in a room and there's elders and stuff. And Ghanaians know you go from right to left and you shake everybody's hand to greet them. Then you sit down like, I knew that because I'm Ghanaian, even though I'm Canadian. It's something that we just knew as being a Ghanaian. That your parents told you when you go to Ghanaian because they have Ghanaian clubs and associations. And you go and you know you're supposed to shake from right to left. If you come in and you're from, you know, a culture where you never. That never was the case. You just walk in and you come and you sit down all the elder, hey, this person didn't even come and talk to me. Oh, you didn't greet me? You didn't greet. You didn't greet. I have Heard Ghanaians have long conversations about how someone didn't greet them and how offended they are that someone didn't greet them. So these little cultural nuances could be detrimental to someone. If you don't know how people do things, then you, you, you kind of have to learn about how things are done so that you don't look like you're offending anybody. So there's cultural differences. And even in dating. Yeah, dating in, in the US and in Canada, people have open affection and all that and it's, nobody cares. But here, Ghanaians are so a man and a woman could be walking down the street and you don't even know that they're in a relationship because they're not even holding hands. They're not like hugging lovey dovey. There's nothing you can't tell unless they're behind closed doors in their private privacy. So sometimes people from abroad feel like, this person doesn't love me. They're not showing me the affection because they're just so distant and so cold. I want to rub their shoulder. And they're kind of like standoffish when you're in public, not realizing that that's kind of their cultural difference of how they handle themselves in certain situations. So communication with your partner is important so that you know that these, these differences, you know, can be, it can be something that can turn someone off from wanting to be with someone who's from a different culture too. And also Ghanaians want their culture so strongly that if they do decide to marry someone, they want to have the traditional marriage and all that kind of stuff, bringing the families together. And someone might be like, let's just go to city hall and just sign our document and we're married. You know what I mean? So cultural differences are very important in integration as well.