The Executive Chairman of KGL Group, Mr. Alex Apau Dadey, has called on wealthy African families and business founders to rethink how they manage wealth, urging them to transform family assets into sustainable enterprises capable of surviving across generations.

Speaking at the 10th Ghana CEO Summit on Thursday, May 28, Mr. Dadey said many African businesses collapse after the death of their founders because wealth is often consumed rather than institutionalised through structured governance systems and long-term investment planning.

According to him, Africa’s long-term economic transformation will depend largely on the continent’s ability to preserve wealth and build enduring family-owned enterprises that can continue creating jobs and driving growth over time.

“Family wealth must be viewed not merely as inheritance. It should be viewed as an asset class for building transgenerational enterprises,” he stated.

Mr. Dadey observed that while many African entrepreneurs focus on accumulating wealth, little attention is paid to creating systems that guarantee continuity beyond the founding generation.

“One of Africa’s most under-discussed economic challenges is the inability to institutionalise family wealth across generations,” he noted. “Too much African wealth disappears within one generation because it is consumed rather than structured and fragmented rather than institutionalised.”

He further argued that many successful business owners invest heavily in luxury lifestyles instead of establishing governance structures and investment vehicles capable of preserving and growing wealth for future generations.

“When we make money, we buy the cars, the buildings, and all those luxuries, and the wealth disappears when the founder passes on,” he remarked.

Mr. Dadey stressed that sustainable development cannot be achieved if wealth disappears with every generation, urging African entrepreneurs to focus on building resilient institutions rather than pursuing only personal success.

“No civilization advances to sustainability when wealth disappears every generation,” he added.

He pointed to some of the world’s most enduring corporations as examples of businesses built through disciplined family capital, strong governance systems, succession planning, and continuous reinvestment.

According to him, African business leaders must intentionally invest in family offices, holding structures, governance frameworks, and productive sectors of the economy to ensure wealth remains a tool for long-term development.

“This requires intentional investments in family offices, governance systems, succession frameworks, and long-term capital redeployment into productive assets of the economy,” he explained.

Mr. Dadey also emphasised that the true measure of entrepreneurship should not only be wealth creation but the ability to transfer institutional memory, values, capabilities, and productive capital across generations.

He further called for stronger leadership and institutional discipline across Africa, stressing that sustainable economic transformation would require long-term thinking, consistent execution, and resilient enterprises capable of competing globally.