Nigerian immigrant women’s entrepreneurial embeddedness in Ghana, West Africa

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of female immigrant entrepreneurs generally and more specifically Nigerian women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa. Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative research that draws on a broad-based research on Nigerian men and women immigrants’ entrepreneurship in Ghana. Face-to-face interviews with six women in the study are analysed here to provide insights into their motivations for and embeddedness of their entrepreneurship activities in Ghana. Findings: The women’s entrepreneurship activities lend themselves to the mixed embeddedness argument in two ways: first is their ethnic embeddedness, and second their embeddedness in informality and policy framework. Also, all the women work in very trying circumstances and thus display what can be described as a “daring entrepreneurship” drive. Practical implications: This paper is positioned at the intersection of ethnic embeddedness, informality and daring entrepreneurial drive by migrant women. Originality/value: The paper provides an unprecedented and a refreshing account on the entrepreneurship and operational pathways of women in the margin of the global economy.