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Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring,

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Speaker 1: and sure they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals

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Speaker 1: routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little,

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Speaker 1: day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank.

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Speaker 1: It might seem boring to safe plan and make calculated

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Speaker 1: decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is

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Speaker 1: what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P

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Speaker 1: the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank

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Speaker 1: National Association Member FDIC.

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Speaker 2: Erness What's Up?

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Speaker 1: You ever walk into a small business and everything just

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Speaker 1: works like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital,

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Speaker 1: tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before

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Speaker 1: at a pop up market, or even one of our

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Speaker 1: can keep pushing your vision forward.

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Speaker 3: Tweet maybe you might be the best person to talk

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Speaker 3: about this because you you're on both sides, on the

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Speaker 3: American side, and so for people that have not been

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Speaker 3: to Guan or not familiar. You know the reason why

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Speaker 3: we personally, you know, invested our time, energy resources into Ghana.

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Speaker 3: We just felt Gona had a few things that was

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Speaker 3: in his favor. A it's safe, right, that's important. So

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Speaker 3: from a security standpoint, you want to go to a

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Speaker 3: country that you actually feel safe. And this is just

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Speaker 3: anywhere in the world, right, So we've been all over

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Speaker 3: the map and you know, you kind of know when

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Speaker 3: you're in dangerous areas and you kind of know when

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Speaker 3: you're in the area that's you know, you.

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Speaker 2: Feel comfortable in.

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Speaker 3: So ghan is a safe country and it has stable

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Speaker 3: government and that's important too. Unfortunately, especially in Africa, you know,

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Speaker 3: government has been a major issue and that's for a

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Speaker 3: variety of different reasons. But be'st neither here nor there.

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Speaker 3: But you know, gan is one of these countries that

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Speaker 3: has you know, transitions of power. Right, they don't have

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Speaker 3: like military coups happening in every three years, so that's important.

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Speaker 2: Like, you know, you invest.

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Speaker 3: Somewhere, you want you want to know that there's that

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Speaker 3: at least you know that there's never gonna be a

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Speaker 3: perfect government, but at least there's no you know, simple

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Speaker 3: unrest that happens every other week. Right, that's something that

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Speaker 3: is not sustainable for investment, especially for foreign investment, because

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Speaker 3: you don't know what's going on.

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Speaker 2: So that works in his favor.

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Speaker 3: But you like talk about your transition as far as

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Speaker 3: you know, an American going to Ghana even though you're

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Speaker 3: from Ghana originally, but like because you know, the healthcare

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Speaker 3: system all of that kind of just walking through your

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Speaker 3: personal experiences.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, my experience.

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Speaker 4: It's interesting because I sometimes tell people you get you

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Speaker 4: get the culture shocked twice, right, Because I was born

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Speaker 4: in the US and then I moved to Ghana when

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Speaker 4: I was seven, Right, there was an adjustment. Even though

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Speaker 4: I was Guinean by blood, there was an adjustment and

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Speaker 4: just being American and now trying to plug into the

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Speaker 4: to the Guinean kind of school system. And then I

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Speaker 4: came back to the US for college, there was an adjustment.

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Speaker 4: And then going back to Ghana. You don't realize like

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Speaker 4: how much you kind of evolved doing your formative years.

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Speaker 4: But it was an adjustment to start out, but tremendous

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Speaker 4: amount of opportunity because you know kameit touched on the

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Speaker 4: business environment. I actually moved back to Ghana in twenty

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Speaker 4: nineteen to join a small holding company and at the time,

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Speaker 4: like you know, we.

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Speaker 2: Had three restaurants in our portfolio.

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Speaker 4: Right fast forward to today, you know, five five six

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Speaker 4: years later, we have upwards of one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 4: where one of the largest franchisees for Pinkberry across the world.

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Speaker 2: Right, and this is just in Ghana.

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Speaker 4: And so very quickly I was able to kind of

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Speaker 4: adjust to the dynamics of working and living in Ghana

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Speaker 4: because although our institutions are nascent processes work, if you

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Speaker 4: want to set up a company, there's a structure that

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Speaker 4: you can follow to be able to do that, people

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Speaker 4: to support and assist you all across the board.

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Speaker 2: And then you know, from quality of.

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Speaker 4: Life life standpoint, like quality of life in Ghana is

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Speaker 4: really high, especially if you're you know, someone of middle

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Speaker 4: income upper upper middle class, Like there's certain things you

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Speaker 4: can have access to. You have, you know, additional support,

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Speaker 4: whether it's you know, nanny's at home to kind of.

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Speaker 2: Support with upkeep. The healthcare infrastructure is really strong.

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Speaker 4: We invest the significant amounts of money the government private

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Speaker 4: sector into enhancing our healthcare systems.

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Speaker 2: When you look at Ghana from kind.

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Speaker 4: Of a social perspective, like everyone talks about dirty December

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Speaker 4: and like the year we go to party, but the

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Speaker 4: social scene extends beyond that, right there's movie theaters and

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Speaker 4: golf courses and pickleball and all these nice kind of

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Speaker 4: restaurants that you can partake in. And then on the

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Speaker 4: cultural side, you know, there's a whole bunch of natural

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Speaker 4: kind of whether you want to go on hikes, or

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Speaker 4: you want to go to the the Cacum forests, or

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Speaker 4: you want to go to the Cape Coast castles, or

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Speaker 4: you want to partake in in like a cultural dance trope.

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Speaker 4: There's just so much richness to Ghana from a social

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Speaker 4: standpoint that even goes beyond just you know, the parties

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Speaker 4: that a lot of people will see on Instagram. And

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Speaker 4: so for me, it was like that range just allowed

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Speaker 4: me to kind of plug back in and really start

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Speaker 4: to assimilate again. And I think you know, when people

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Speaker 4: are thinking about Ghana as a place, can I live here?

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Speaker 2: Right?

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Speaker 4: Like everything from our healthcare to education system, Like right now,

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Speaker 4: from a tech standpoint, you got a lot of people

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Speaker 4: working remotely out in Ghana because quality of internet is there, right.

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Speaker 2: We have five G Internet in Ghana too.

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Speaker 4: There's Elon Musk Starlink that you can plug in too,

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Speaker 4: just to make sure you have access to your Zoom

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Speaker 4: meetings and Microsoft teams.

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Speaker 2: And so I think it's one of the things where.

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Speaker 4: Like people feel like Africa can be distant in daunting,

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Speaker 4: but stay connected to folks who've been there. Come as

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Speaker 4: a tourist first, and you'll see that it's it's a

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Speaker 4: high quality of life that you can easily assimilate well to.

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Speaker 3: We talk about talk about your your specific journey as

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Speaker 3: far as, like you said, you're one of the biggest franchise,

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Speaker 3: you had one of the biggest you know.

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Speaker 2: Food change in Ghana and the whole probably continent.

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Speaker 3: So talk about like just talk about that as far

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Speaker 3: as your entrepreneurial journey going there, Like what was the

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Speaker 3: steps that you took to get up and run in

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Speaker 3: like kind.

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Speaker 2: Of walking through that. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So my thought process was I've always known that I

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Speaker 4: was an entrepreneur at heart, you know.

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Speaker 2: I was I was a kid in middle school in

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Speaker 2: high school who you know, would sell back in Ghana.

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Speaker 2: I would buy all.

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Speaker 4: These us for roll ups, rice, Chrispy Trees, all these

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Speaker 4: snacks and sell it to my classmates.

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Speaker 2: So I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit.

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Speaker 4: And so when I was started to think about going

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Speaker 4: back to Ghana, you know, my preference was to do

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Speaker 4: it through what's called entrepreneurship through acquisition. So I found

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Speaker 4: a partner who had set up kind of a food business.

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Speaker 4: They only had three locations at the time, and just

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Speaker 4: started working together as partners and we said, hey, we

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Speaker 4: want to stay opportunistic, right, and our thesis was literally

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Speaker 4: gone as a very nascent market with a lot of opportunity.

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Speaker 4: Sixty percent of our population is under the age of

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Speaker 4: twenty five and the middle class is growing at an

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Speaker 4: unprecedented rate, and so we knew people will always need food.

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Speaker 4: So we started off in food service and really trying

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Speaker 4: to scale kind of what is you know, quick service

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Speaker 4: fast casual restaurants, And our thesis was, hey, we would

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Speaker 4: get some of these Western brands and learn their processes

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Speaker 4: and then implement it to scale up some of our

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Speaker 4: local brands. And so now we have both, Right, we

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Speaker 4: have the franchise for Burger King and Pinkberry, but we

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Speaker 4: also have local brands and Domain Foods and Chickenman and

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Speaker 4: selectively are are the largest restaurant operator in Ghana. But

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Speaker 4: we've continued to stay opportunistic and now have a presence

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Speaker 4: in actually fourteen different African countries covering food service. We

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Speaker 4: also do financial services where you provide kind of small

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Speaker 4: business financing for people at the bottom of the pyramid.

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Speaker 4: We have a gaming platform that effectively provides software for

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Speaker 4: media houses to run raffles. So we actually partnered with

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Speaker 4: Alvin and Kwame to run one of our raffles kind

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Speaker 4: of through their media house, and then and then real estate,

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Speaker 4: so both commercial and residential, and so partner with Alvin

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Speaker 4: and Kwame on Sambra to do to do on the

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Speaker 4: residential side and then on the commercial side. We also

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Speaker 4: have a bunch of properties in Tanzania, and so it's

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Speaker 4: been interesting to kind of first come to Ghana but

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Speaker 4: realize that the opportunity for growth extends beyond just Ghana

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Speaker 4: and taking that risk going.

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Speaker 2: To some of these other different markets, so across.

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Speaker 4: West Africa, East Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, we're in Malawi, Mozambique,

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Speaker 4: Sierra Leone, we're working on Senego and Guinea. It's been fun, man,

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Speaker 4: and I always extend myself as a resource for people

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Speaker 4: who are looking to navigate, because I think first you

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Speaker 4: need someone who something to chase, or someone who's had

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Speaker 4: the success you're looking for, and then just kind of

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Speaker 4: leverage those partnerships to deeping your presence and figure out

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Speaker 4: where you can also add value.

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Speaker 5: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

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Speaker 5: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador

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Speaker 5: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with

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Speaker 5: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

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Speaker 5: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

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Speaker 5: Donald J. Trump's leadership. Christyom, the United States Secretary of

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Speaker 5: Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are

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Speaker 5: at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred

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Speaker 5: thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally,

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Speaker 5: your next you will be fine nearly one thousand dollars

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Speaker 5: a day, imprisoned and deported, you will never return. But

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Speaker 5: if you register using our CBP home app and leave now,

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Speaker 5: you could be allowed to return legally. Do what's right.

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Speaker 5: Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families

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Speaker 5: will be protected.

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Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,