Investors show confidence in Ghana’s economy
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr Yofi Grant, has expressed delight at the level of confidence shown in Ghana by business people in Dubai and Turkey as a safe investment destination.
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According to him, Ghana, in spite of its challenges, was attractive to investors and expressed the determination of the GIPC to work closely with ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the government to promote the country to the outside world.
Mr Grant said this in an interview with the Graphic Business on February 22 after he had joined the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and other government functionaries to attend the just-ended World Government Forum in Dubai.
“My first trip was with the Vice-President to Dubai to meet some of the big players in the investment space and I can say that the meetings went very well,” he said.
According to the CEO of the GIPC, the actual reason for the trip was to be at the World Government Forum, “which rivals the World Economic Forum, but this somehow was very relevant and practical because they spoke about where the world was going to in terms of politics, technology and what the future holds.”
For us, “it was very inspirational to see where the world was going—the fact that people are now very sensitive to what the world is delivering to them, and therefore we were keen on how to reposition ourselves to respond to people’s changing needs,” Mr Grant said.
Investor engagements
Mr Grant said the delegation met interesting speakers such as the founder of Uber, the founder and CEO of the Mara Group and the executive vice-president of Emirates, and “we had very good discussions because they expressed their willingness to either increase their investments in Ghana or start new projects in the country.”
“Dr Bawumia had a session where he discussed the changing politics of the time and how to deliver in the democratic dispensation to the citizenry,” he said.
We also had an interesting meeting with the Director of Government Accelerators. The accelerators ascertain how change in policy affects the country’s citizenry,” he said.
Mr Grant said the delegation also had a one-on-one discussion with the Sheikh who is in charge of the Dubai Investment Company, a huge multi-billion dollar fund that is driving investment across Dubai and the region.
“I had a discussion with him about foreign participation in their economy where they believe that it’s their duty to attract investment into the country and so they have policies which are very attractive to investors,” he said.
Mr Grant explained that, “this is because you need to attract the investors to come in to build the businesses and then you will learn and help the people. This is one of the ideas I have for Ghana in the sense that, instead of front loading cost to investors, we rather need to move it from the front load and put it at the back load.”
In doing business, he stressed the need for the country to recognise that “we haven’t been good in capital formation in our economy for a long period and, therefore, we do not have the capital to invest in the big ticket items that we want.”
To this end, he said “we need to make our country beautiful enough to attract investors and then create the businesses and the jobs badly needed by the people, and then tax the companies accordingly.”