Whilst poverty has long been a developmental challenge in the Global South and particularly in subSaharan
Africa, Ghana has made great strides in its alleviation. However, this improving situation has
not been felt in all regions with the three northern regions experiencing further deterioration, with the
net result that the proportion of those living in poverty has increased. As a consequence,
entrepreneurship has been identified as an alternative pathway to development and rural poverty
alleviation. However, this strategy overlooks the fact that the conditions for entrepreneurship in rural
environments are underpinned significantly by other factors, not least those related to built capital or
infrastructure. This paper argues that built capital can either facilitate or restrict rural entrepreneurship
and consequently poverty reduction. Hence, this paper critically examines the condition of
infrastructure in rural northern Ghana, specifically road, water and electricity, noting how these forms
of built capital affect the entrepreneurial and poverty reduction processes. The study thus contributes to
an identified gap in the literature noted by Wooley (2013: 2) that ‘the development of infrastructure for
entrepreneurship remains elusive’, a situation that Audretsch et al., (2015) consider striking. The study
adopts a qualitative research approach, to examine infrastructure within the three case study regions.
Data was gathered at both the district and community levels, employing both focus groups and semistructured
interviews (n=56). The findings confirm that, northern Ghana faces issues of market
accessibility with implications for cost, revenue and the benefits of economies of scale. All
entrepreneurial limitations are associated with the poor infrastructure in the area. The study concludes
that the current state of built capital in rural northern Ghana poses severe limitations that must be
adressed for entrepreneurship to become a viable means of poverty reduction.