A Ghanaian brewery shows how hard life is for small businesses

, Tom”, exclaims the label on the beer bottle. Underneath is a photo of the birthday boy, then an employee at the American embassy in Ghana, pulling a face that suggests he was not expecting any buttoned-up diplomats at his party. Clement Djameh, a wisecracking Ghanaian brewer, makes the bespoke labels and the amber liquid inside. It is refreshing, tangy, and so strong that a second glass risks turning the afternoon into a haze. The surprise ingredient is locally grown . Mr Djameh is desperate to expand to meet demand, but his plans are badly stalled. Those running businesses in sub-Saharan Africa, even in relatively prosperous countries such as Ghana, face a scarcely conceivable array of problems. Chief among them is . Alas, government and donor efforts to fix the problems often go awry.