born tycoon Manoj Lakhiani and the Blow Group empire
Manoj Lakhiani, a Ghana-born industrialist, built the Blow Group into a major manufacturing conglomerate after starting with a small plastic extrusion machine. Despite his significant influence in the Ghanaian economy, he maintains a low public profile.
Why it matters
The profile offers insight into the growth of private industrial manufacturing in West Africa and the career of a prominent but private business leader.
Manoj Lakhiani was 17 when he quit school and borrowed $25,000 from his father to buy a second-hand plastic extrusion machine in Accra, according to an account of his life released by his company.
Three decades later, the Ghana-born industrialist is chairman of the Blow Group of Companies, one of the largest privately owned manufacturers in Ghana. Its factories in Tema, the port city east of Accra, make plastic bags and packaging, PET bottle preforms, Bel Aqua bottled water, Bel Cola and a range of soft drinks, a low-alcohol cider and Belpak tissue paper. The group says it employs about 4,000 people.
His record includes a noodle factory he built and sold to the maker of Indomie, a market-leading water brand born out of a lost customer, a 2024 product recall by Ghana's food regulator and a long-running land dispute in the High Court in Accra.
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