Ghanaians Don’t Just Steal From Bosses, We Have Been Taught That Stealing Is Normal—Barker-Vormawor

Barker-Vormawor is asking a question every business owner in Ghana is afraid to ask: Why do so many Ghanaians like to steal from their employers?

Is stealing our national character or what?

If you open a shop in Ghana today, the biggest problem is not rent or taxes. It is the worker you employ. The sales girl will steal sales. The driver will steal fuel money. The storekeeper will carry goods home. The accountant will cook the books. You help them, you feed them, but they will still steal from you and say “everybody does it.”

We have even given it nice names. We call it “managing”, “hustle”, or “small top-up.”

Because of this, many rich Ghanaians have stopped creating jobs. They tried, they employed people, and their own workers killed the business. That is why unemployment is high – not just because there is no money, but because thieves have made entrepreneurs tired.

But Barker-Vormawor says stop blaming only the small worker.

He says the big stealing started at the top. Politicians were put on boards of Ghana Airways, Ghana Water Company, ECG and VRA. They gave shady contracts to their friends, shared the loot, collapsed the companies, and then turned around to blame all Ghanaians and say “this is how Ghanaians are.”

His point is simple: When big men steal billions with no punishment and are even defended by footsoldiers, the small worker learns that this is how the country works.

If a minister can steal and still be called honorable, why can’t the sales girl steal?

So we now have a country where one half steals big, the other half steals small, and the honest businessman in the middle is the one who suffers.

Until we punish stealing from the top to the bottom – from Flagstaff House to the corner shop – no business will survive and no job will be safe.

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