12 Facts About Paa Grant

George Alfred Grant, popularly known as Paa Grant, was a merchant and politician in the Gold Coast who has been called "the father of Gold Coast politics".

Paa Grant paid for Kwame Nkrumah to return to Ghana from the United States.

Paa Grant was born in 1878 in Beyin, Western Nzema, into an influential merchant family.

Paa Grant was the son of William Minneaux Grant and Madam Adjoa Biatwi of the Aboradze clan, and the grandson of Francis Chapman Grant, proprietor of the Gold Coast Times and treasurer of the Fanti Confederation.

Paa Grant was employed in the timber trade, first at Axim and then for five years in the Ivory Coast.

Paa Grant prospered as a timber merchant, with a flourishing export business, at a time when the trade was dominated by European companies.

Paa Grant visited Britain in 1905 and by the time the First World War broke out in 1914, he had built up business contacts with leading timber companies in Europe and the United States.

Paa Grant opened his own offices in London, Liverpool and Hamburg between 1920 and 1922, and in the Gold Coast he expanded operations to Dunkwa, Sekondi and Akim Abuakwa.

Paa Grant was a member of the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society and was instrumental in many developmental projects, including introducing street lighting and pipe-borne water to Sekondi and Axim.

Paa Grant invited J B Danquah and others to a meeting to launch a nationalist party.

Nkrumah later split from the UGCC to form the Convention People's Party, and Paa Grant eventually concentrated more on his businesses than politics.

Sarah Esi Paa Grant-Acquah, is the mother of lawyer Phyllis Christian.