More opportunities for local investors under new GIPC Act
The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has stated that local Ghanaian investors stand to gain tremendously from the new GIPC Act, 865 2013.
It said the act had never been discriminatory, and, therefore, debunked rumours that the act favoured only foreign investors and not the locals.
The new act, which was revised in November last year, increased the investment threshold, as well as prescribed some incentives for investors (local and foreign) seeking to do business in the country.
Ever since the inception of the revised act, some local investors have taken a swipe at the GIPC; saying that it was more favorable to foreign investors, much to their detriment.
But in a swift reaction, the Director of Research and Investment, Mr Kofi Sakyiamah Antiri, in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS stated categorically that “the act has never since its inception been for foreign investors only; it has been for investors, and here I mean local and foreign alike,” he said; adding that “We do not discriminate.”
According to him, “one thing we have noticed is that most Ghanaian entrepreneurs, no matter their level, are not ready to come and sit down to know what is in the act for them. As a result, they do not even know that some of the benefits of the law can help them cut cost,” he said.
He further explained that the center had in the last four years been organising outreach sensitisation programmes in all the 10 regions to disabuse the minds of people.
According to him, it is surprising that the local investors are not taking advantage of the incentives, as all that is required of the local businesses is to register with the GIPC and they will enjoy the same benefits as other investors.
“All they have to do is to register with the GIPC, it is free, and after that you enjoy the same benefits as other investors. There is no threshold, the form is free,” he explained.
The GIPC, he said, had created a database for Ghanaian companies in order to fast track partnerships with foreign companies, but the local companies have been adamant in responding to them.
“We have created a database for Ghanaian companies operating here; we take the trouble and write to them to send us their profile so that we could input it in the data so that if anybody wants a Ghanaian company in a particular sector, we could just go in there, pick and introduce them to that company, and for this too, we are finding it difficult to get responses,” he lamented.
He also insisted that allegations that some investors were given special incentives, citing some hotels, was false. “Every investor in the tourism sector who started operating before 2012 is allowed to enjoy something in the LI 1817 in our bid to promote the tourism sector.
Assessing the GIPC Act
Mr Antiri explained that although no serious assessment had been done to know the level of compliance, by the end of the first quarter, the tracking and monitoring division of the GIPC would go out to find out how far investors were complying with the new act.
He said the center had observed that because the manufacturing sector was exempt from the revised investment threshold, most investors were now focusing on the sector.
“The little observation we have made, having increased the threshold for investors and taking out manufacturing, is that a lot more companies are registering with manufacturing sector, and we do not know whether it is to dodge or they are actually coming to do manufacturing,” he said. GB