It begins like a tale of two men who climbed different ladders to power.
One was a firebrand journalist with a nose for corruption, the other a hustler at the port who turned cargo into an empire.
Their names? Raymond Archer and Daniel “McDan” McKorley. What started as an ambition soon unravelled into one of Ghana’s fiercest business rivalries.
Raymond Archer was once feared in the corridors of power. His newspaper, The Enquirer, dug deep into political scandals, earning him loyal readers and bitter enemies. But Archer wanted more than headlines.
He built factories at the Ghana Trade Fair Centre, pouring millions into packaging and labels. For a moment, it seemed journalism had given birth to an industry.
Meanwhile, Daniel McKorley was writing a different script. Starting small in freight forwarding, he founded McDan Shipping in 1999. The gamble paid off. His company grew across Africa, adding aviation, logistics, and even salt mining.
By the 2010s, McDan wasn’t just a businessman; he was a symbol of what grit—and political connections—could achieve in Ghana.
In February 2020, Archer’s world came crashing down—literally. Bulldozers rolled into the Trade Fair site, flattening his factories in the dead of night. Machines worth millions were reduced to rubble.
Management said tenants had overstayed their contracts. Archer called it an ambush. In the background, whispers linked McDan to the exercise. The press had its villain.
Months later, McKorley was appointed Board Chairman of the Ghana Trade Fair Company. To Archer’s supporters, this was proof of orchestration, that the bulldozers had a businessman’s fingerprints.
To McDan’s allies, it was politics as usual. Either way, suspicion deepened. Ghana’s business arena was no longer just about contracts—it was about control.
Fast forward to April 2025. Archer resurfaces, not as a publisher or industrialist, but as Acting Director of EOCO—the agency empowered to investigate and prosecute economic crime.
The timing felt cinematic. A man who lost his fortune at the hands of the state now wielded the state’s sharpest sword. The city buzzed with one question: would Archer settle old scores?
Even before Archer’s comeback, McDan was facing headwinds. In late 2024, Ghana Airports shut down his jet terminal over millions in alleged arrears. McDan disputed the figures, blaming bureaucratic tricks and politics.
For a man who built his empire on flight and freight, the grounding was more than business—it was a dent in the aura of invincibility.
By July 2025, the feud reached a new theatre. A McDan warehouse at Spintax was demolished by National Security, officially for aviation safety reasons. But the timing was suspicious. Archer had just taken charge of EOCO. The opposition cried vendetta. The government said enforcement. And ordinary Ghanaians shook their heads—was this justice or just revenge?
Source: Africa Report Network