Open for business

Hanna Tetteh, Ghana's new foreign affairs minister speaking while she was still minister for trade and commerce at an investment conference in Accra,

said some Chinese products she had seen were dangerous, particularly cheap electrical goods.

"It is about the quality of the products, the cables, the switches and the wires. You know all of these things are supposed to have certain minimum standards, otherwise they become dangerous," she said.

She also said it was wrong for Chinese companies to see Africa as an easy export market compared to that of more developed nations.

"They have got to raise their game to compete in Africa because they will also be competing against major Western brands here," she says.

Many Chinese are displaying the same entrepreneurial spirit they would at home.

Zhejiang province on China's east coast is famous for its small businesses making anything from cigarette lighters and shoes to spectacles.

One Zhejiang entrepreneur from Hangzhou, Lu Zhilang decided to set up a toilet paper factory in what appears no more than a sprawl of old barns just outside the small town of Akuse in Ghana in January last year.

Shinefeel now employs around 100 local Ghanaians alongside 7 Chinese engineers manufacturing and packing the rolls selling the product in some of Ghana's major cities.

It is undercutting local and foreign brands, which like Tembo are all mostly Chinese, since those from the West would be too expensive for the market.

Lu, who lives on site and has a bed next to his office, has been prepared to put up with a certain amount of discomfort setting up the operation.

"It has been extremely difficult actually. It is a major hassle to set up a production-based business here. I didn't get any assistance from the Ghanaian government, apart from five years of not having to pay personal income tax for myself and employees, which is there to encourage foreign companies."

"I think from a long-term perspective it should be worthwhile because there is a lot of potential here."

Lu says he has not come to Africa to escape harder business conditions in China since his Hangzhou factory is doing well.

"Business remains good in Zhejiang. People still need toilet paper but this is a new opportunity for us."

Lu says hiring reliable staff is his major headache in Ghana.