Willie Hamilton is the president and CEO of Black Men United, a grassroots organization in Omaha focused on uplifting Black men through advocacy and pushing for economic development. The foundation is working with community members and local city officials to garner more backing for their initiative to foster a beneficial business relationship with Ghana, a West African country with 33 million people.

“It’s about collaborating, networking and building economic development between Africa and Omaha,” he said in an interview with WOWT.

Last week, the group Earlier hosted its second consecutive “Doing Business in Ghana” meeting at the Greater Omaha Chamber. The philanthropist, members of Black Men United, and other community members and leaders held discussions about why making Ghana a sister city for economic improvement will help catapult the success of small businesses in the city since some of the local owners already have roots in Africa.

“We got some small businesses here, we have some small businesses that are doing business over in Africa,” Hamilton said. “How can we get together, bring in the right people to really grow this? This is a win-win situation for Omaha, Nebraska.”

Heath Mello, Greater Omaha Chamber president and CEO, is one of the city’s government entities that were in attendance alongside Williams and his team as they talked through the opportunities the collaboration could bring residents.

“International engagement, international business is part of what Omaha does,” he told WOWT. “It’s part of what the Omaha Chamber does. It’s important for our local economy, but it’s more important for our businesses. It creates relationships. It creates new global markets, and it’s something we need to do more of as a region.”

Mello also shared how discussing foreign affairs with investors from other countries isn’t new to them as they had open forums during Berkshire Hathaway shareholders’ weekend that was held in Omaha.

“We had investors from Ireland and from Canada, from Denmark, all coming in to have a similar conversation about trade and international investment, how we do international business deals in Omaha,” he said.

According to the International Trade Administration, Ghana is the third largest U.S. export market for goods in Africa. Due to this, Hamilton sees it as fuel for Omaha to keep creating sustainable relationships with the country.

“It’s building that recognition that we have to have among each other and building trust, so I think it’s imperative that we do that and we start taking people back and forth to Africa,” he said.