It is the typical dream of many entrepreneurs and family-owned Ghanaian businesses to have their children or the next generation take over their businesses. As such the next generation will be prepared by for example being given the best education possible and relevant practical experience.

Unfortunately, this dream is generally not realized because the next generation will follow their own dreams or will not want to be involved in the family business.

Over the years, it has been observed with sadness the demise of many well-known family-owned Ghanaian businesses. The demise may start with ageing owners/managers with declining energy levels, enthusiasm and other inevitable ageing related issues together with the next generation not showing interest in the business until the passing of the founders/owners.

The next generation and family members then get involved and possibly there are years of litigation during which the business facilities ran down, key customers, personnel and business relationships are lost leading to the ultimate demise of the business.

Publicly owned businesses have similar succession issues, but the professionally managed ones deal with this through properly instituted governance structures including effective boards of directors, professional executive management teams and appropriate succession planning processes. Even so these businesses go through phases where boards and management teams are replaced frequently due to acquisitions, restructuring etc.

In short, businesses like all living things, go through the phases of birth, growth, maturity, decline and demise. However, this reality is addressed relatively successfully in certain jurisdictions where family owned businesses have formed significant sectors of the economies for generations, providing most of the employment and the engines of economic growth.

In the Ghanaian context, there appears to be an increasing trend where business owners are seeking valuation services for the purposes of selling their businesses or inviting new investors who bring both financial resources and professional management expertise.

Hopefully, this trend will continue to preserve, sustain and enhance the values of these businesses across generations including the release of cash to diversify investment portfolios.

The investments portfolios may be managed by family members with the requisite knowledge together with professional fund managers. It is appreciated that the financial services and wealth management services sectors of the

Ghanaian economy have gone through crises in recent years, hence skepticism on the part of investors regarding the competencies of fund managers is understandable. However, the good news is that the resulting reforms instituted by the Bank of Ghana, the Securities and

Exchange Commission and other regulators have ensured renewed confidence in the sectors. Business owners who sell all or part of their businesses, therefore, have the option of using professional fund managers to manage the proceeds to preserve the values realized going forward. It is always useful for interested family members to acquire relevant knowledge of investing for effective monitoring of the activities of the fund managers in order to protect the funds placed with them.