For many young Ghanaians, starting a small food business is supposed to be a pathway to independence, job creation and financial stability. But before the first meal is cooked or the first customer is served, aspiring entrepreneurs can find themselves facing a long list of permits, registrations, certificates and fees.
The intention behind regulation is understandable. Food businesses must meet health, safety, environmental and operational standards. Businesses should be registered, food handlers should be trained and consumers should be protected.
The problem, however, is the cost of compliance and the burden it can place on someone who has not yet made a single cedi from the business.
Consider a young person who wants to start a small food business using a temporary space. Depending on the nature and location of the business, they may need to navigate several requirements, including a permit from the municipal assembly, business registration, a Business Operating Permit, a Food Handlers Permit, FDA-related requirements, environmental requirements and, tourism-related certification.
Each requirement may appear reasonable on its own. But when they are added together, the financial burden can become significant for a young entrepreneur operating with limited capital.
This raises an important question: How does a young person raise enough money to meet all these requirements before the business has even generated its first income?
The hidden cost of starting a business
The cost of starting a business is not limited to equipment, ingredients, rent and staff.
There are also administrative costs, transportation costs, inspection-related expenses and the time required to visit different institutions and complete various processes.
For someone with access to capital, these may simply be viewed as the normal costs of doing business. For a young entrepreneur operating on personal savings or money borrowed from family and friends, however, every additional fee can mean less money available for ingredients, equipment, marketing and working capital.
This creates a difficult situation.
An entrepreneur may have enough money to start cooking and selling food, but not enough money to complete every compliance requirement before opening.
And this is where the conversation about entrepreneurship needs to become more realistic.
We cannot continuously encourage young people to "start a business" without also asking whether the system makes it financially possible for them to start one.
Then comes the question of pricing
Even after an entrepreneur manages to raise the money to meet the various requirements, another challenge begins: How much should the food be sold for?
A small food business has to recover the cost of ingredients, packaging, gas or electricity, transportation, rent, labour, equipment, taxes and other operating expenses.
If the entrepreneur also spends a substantial amount on licences, permits and certifications before opening, those costs eventually become part of the overall cost of running the business.
But customers also have limits.
A young food entrepreneur cannot simply increase prices indefinitely to recover every expense. Consumers are already dealing with rising living costs, and excessively high prices can push customers away.
The entrepreneur is therefore caught between two pressures: keeping prices affordable for customers while charging enough to keep the business alive.
Compliance should not become a barrier to entrepreneurship
Nobody is arguing against food safety or responsible regulation.
In fact, proper regulation is essential. Consumers deserve to know that the food they buy is prepared in a safe environment by people who understand basic hygiene and food-handling requirements.
The issue is whether the system can be designed in a way that protects consumers without discouraging legitimate young entrepreneurs from entering the industry.
There should be greater consideration for micro and small businesses, particularly those starting on a very small scale.
Could there be simplified registration processes for micro-enterprises? Could government agencies provide a single-window system where entrepreneurs can complete multiple requirements in one place? Could fees be structured according to the size and capacity of the business? Could first-time young entrepreneurs receive subsidised compliance support or a grace period to complete certain requirements?
These are questions worth asking.
From collecting fees to supporting businesses
Government institutions have an important role to play in regulating businesses, but they also have a responsibility to create an environment in which businesses can grow.
A young person who wants to establish a small food business should not feel that the first challenge is figuring out how to raise money for multiple government-related requirements before they can even test whether their business idea will work.
Instead, the system should make it easier for people to move from an idea to a legitimate, compliant and sustainable business.
That could mean better coordination between institutions, clearer information about requirements, transparent fees, digital application processes and targeted support for young entrepreneurs.
It could also mean distinguishing between a small home-based or temporary food operation and a large commercial food establishment, rather than placing disproportionate administrative and financial burdens on businesses with very different capacities.
Ghana needs entrepreneurs — but entrepreneurs also need a chance
Young people are often told that entrepreneurship is the solution to unemployment.
But entrepreneurship requires more than motivation. It requires access to capital, affordable regulation, reliable infrastructure, markets and an environment where a small business has a realistic chance of surviving.
If a young person is willing to work, willing to comply with health and safety standards and willing to pay legitimate taxes and fees, the system should make it easier — not unnecessarily harder — for that person to succeed.
The goal should not be to eliminate regulation. The goal should be to make compliance achievable.
Because when a young Ghanaian has a good business idea but cannot afford the cost of becoming compliant, the country does not just lose one potential business.
It potentially loses a job creator, a taxpayer, an employer and an opportunity for economic growth.
The conversation, therefore, should move beyond asking young people why they are not starting businesses.
We should also ask ourselves:
Are we creating a system that gives them a fair chance to start?
