This research note aims to explore the motives of internationalisation, the barriers to inter-nationalisation, and the actions Polish companies entering distant markets of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have taken to address them. We conduct a comparative case study involving four Polish MNEs with branches or subsidiaries in SSA. We reveal that existing theories of International Business (IB) can effectively explain the challenges faced by Polish companies in SSA in terms of the motives and barriers to internationalisation. What is new and inter-esting, however, are the differences in how these challenges are addressed in countries of significant distance from Poland. Our research suggests that, with the limited resources and visibility of Polish companies as well as the rather symbolic than real institutional support for their internationalisation, the ability to quickly acquire knowledge and utilize ‘unconvention-al’ competitive advantages, particularly ‘relational’ and ‘entrepreneurial’, play a significant role.