How To Make Money Selling Roasted Fish And Plantain In Ghana

In Ghana, roasting plantain by the road side is an old business that most Ghanaians appear not to enjoy although a lot of them enjoy eating roasted plantain.

Well one may question the basis of my conclusion. From observation, people I see doing this business are mostly advanced in age and sometimes when one goes to where they ply their trade to patronize them you sometimes would discover that they are absent. Obviously, this must be because of life’s pressure.

It may not be clear why younger people are not doing this business, but for those who know how to combine it perfectly with other meals, I can tell you that there is a lot of money to be made in this business, especially if one adds roasted fish to the menu. However, for some people, just eating it with groundnut is enough.

This business is simple to start and it doesn’t require a huge capital to start. It needs no branding and advertising. All that is required is neatness and good customer relation.

Other things that are needed to succeed in this business are:

Location: You need to have a good location preferably, a busy road junctions. Research has shown that most people don’t eat roasted plantain as their main meal in Ghana. But their desire to buy some is mostly arose by the sight of the roasted plantain. Adding roasted fish or even cooked beans to this business can make people to consume it as a major meal.

Shelter: Using canopy to shield yourself from the sun is very ideal. With about Ghc300, one can get a good canopy for shelter. However, most people would prefer to do the business under trees, and using the tree’s shade as covering. But its not advisable to do this for too long because striving to get a shelter even better than canopy will mean customers will have where to seat and enjoy their meal of roasted plantain, fish and beans.

Materials: The materials required for roasting plantain are within reach. One may not have to buy some of them. The first thing to look out for is a sizable basin that is spoilt. Going by their practice, this basin is half filled with sand and stones and the other half would be your charcoal. Charcoal is not too expensive in Ghana. With Ghc3 one can buy enough charcoal to use for one day.

The next thing you will need is a hard metal gauze which you will put on top of the basin. It is this metal usually used for fencing and window protector, that will prevent the plantain or fish from having direct contact with the charcoal.
However, if you are not comfortable with the basin and perhaps you want to upgrade and of course attract more customers, then you can get a welder to construct a special charcoal stove for you.

Chairs: There is no gain saying that you need chairs because this is very obvious. You will need two to three chairs where people will sit down both to eat and to wait for the plantain to be done. However, most people will buy and go back home, or to their shops or offices to eat. But if you encourage seating down, in no time you could have yourself a restaurant of sort.

Water: Another very important thing to add to your business is the sale of pure water. Its worthy of note that most people who patronize roasted plantain would drink plenty of water after they finish. To save your customers the pains of patronizing you and then walking another kilometer to get water, its better you think fast and add pure water to your business and by so doing, make more money. Also note that if people come asking you for soft drink, please don’t waste time to sell it too. 

Take-away: Always ensure that you have enough take-away pack. One thing that makes most people to shy away from buying roasted plantain is the paper the plantain is wrapped in by the vendor. Sometimes, if you look closely, you could tell that where such papers are coming from is not health friendly at all. So getting a decent wrap will definitely boost your business.

Rather than staying at home and doing nothing, any Ghanaian youth, especially the female that has no solid tertiary education could experiment with this kind of mini restaurant and such person would not regret it because roasted plantain with groundnuts and fish will continue to be a delicacy that most Ghanaians will continue to enjoy till Christ comes.

By McKnight Elabor  
+233 545351714