Raise Children in the Business Early to Secure Family Enterprises' Future, Says Japan Motors CEO Salem Kalmoni

Ghanaian entrepreneurs must bring their children into the family business from a young age if they hope to see their enterprises survive beyond their founders, according to Salem Kalmoni, Chief Executive Officer of Japan Motors Ghana, who credits his own early immersion in his family's trading empire for preparing him to lead it into its third generation.

Speaking on Joy FM's Personality Profile with Lexis Bill on Thursday, November 5, Kalmoni said exposing children to the daily rhythms of a family enterprise—its values, culture, and responsibilities—builds the foundation for succession long before a formal handover becomes necessary.

"One thing about family businesses is that you involve your children, especially the firstborn. I was the firstborn," Kalmoni said. "And perhaps this is one lesson for aspiring multi-generational Ghanaian family businesses: involve your children in the business from youth. From a very early age. Get them in."

He recalled accompanying his father to social events and, during school holidays, to the family's farm on the outskirts of Accra—land known as Agricattle in the early 1970s that later became the Lakeside Estate development. Those visits, he said, formed part of his early exposure to the family's commercial interests .

A Succession Crisis in Ghanaian Family Businesses

Kalmoni's advice addresses a documented weakness in Ghana's family-owned enterprise sector. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report indicated that approximately 43 percent of family businesses in Ghana lack succession plans, and only about 12 percent survive to the third generation . Separate research on Ghanaian family-owned companies found that roughly 30 percent transition from the first to the second generation, with just three percent surviving to the third .

The stakes are substantial: family-owned companies contribute about 70 percent of Ghana's GDP and account for roughly 92 percent of businesses in the country, according to academic research . Yet the absence of structured succession planning leaves many vulnerable to leadership vacuums, family disputes, and eventual collapse when founders exit or die.

PwC's Edward Gomado has emphasized that succession planning must encompass not only leadership transition but also emergency and exit plans. "Life happens, things may happen suddenly; death may come in a wink," he said in 2024. "So every family business or firm must have an emergency plan to deal with such events."

A Century-Long Family Enterprise

Kalmoni's counsel carries weight given the trajectory of Japan Motors, which traces its origins to Kalmoni & Sons, a trading and transport business established by his grandfather, the late Salem Kalmoni, in 1920 . The family's story in Ghana began in 1912, when the elder Salem and his brother Sobhi arrived in the then Gold Coast from Lebanon—a departure prompted by their parents' fear of Ottoman military conscription after an elder brother was drafted and never returned .

The business initially operated trading shops in Winneba and Swedru before moving to Accra in the late 1940s. Its transport operations became particularly active in the 1930s, trucking cocoa from the hinterland to coastal shipping points for export .

The pivotal turn came in 1958, when Kalmoni's father—having spotted an advertisement in Newsweek indicating that Nissan, then marketing vehicles under the Datsun name, was seeking African distributors—wrote to the Japanese manufacturer and secured a distributorship. That year, S. Kalmoni & Sons imported the first Japanese-made vehicle into Ghana, a Datsun . Japan Motors Trading Company emerged from the enterprise in 1962 and was incorporated as a limited liability company in 1965 .

Salem Kalmoni, a third-generation family member, joined the company in 1991 after completing his studies in Canada. Under his leadership, Japan Motors has expanded its brand portfolio to include Nissan, Foton, Yamaha, and Geely, and extended its footprint into Togo, Mali, Senegal, and Benin . The company opened a vehicle assembly plant in Tema in 2022, assembling Nissan Navara pickups and Foton light-duty trucks, with locally assembled vehicles benefiting from a zero percent VAT rate .

Beyond Succession: The 'Six Bs' of Business Survival

Kalmoni's advice on succession came alongside a broader set of business principles he shared during the interview, which he called the "Six Bs of Business Success"—lessons drawn from what he described as repeated challenges and "bitter experience" over roughly 25 years in the business .

The principles are: banish bad debt, banish dead stock, buy well and sell easy, be frugal, be best of friends with suppliers, and choose good brands. He arranged them in order of importance, with credit discipline and inventory management at the top .

"I've made so many mistakes in business," Kalmoni said. "You often look at success; you don't look to get to success what you've done, the difficulties and how much it cost.