Singapore investors look to Africa through Ghana

Singapore is to use Ghana as a stepping stone for its businesses and investors to penetrate the West African market and the continent at large.

As a result, it has opened a contact office of its external trade facilitating agency, the International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, in Accra, to help attract Singaporean businesses and investors into the Ghanaian economy, the sub-region and the continent in general.

“Singapore chose Ghana over her peers such as Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo, among others, due to its strategic location at the centre of the earth, the use of English as a national language and the political and social stability achieved over the years”, the Director of the IE Singapore, Mr Ian Lee, told the Daily Graphic in Accra.

The Ghana office also caters for the Middle East and Africa.

"Ghana has a lot of competitive advantage over the other countries and we think that to reach the rest of West Africa and Africa, it's better to use Ghana. The opportunities are there, you have the ports and the country is more closer to West Africa than the others," Mr Ian explained.

Although the enterprise is yet to officially begin operations in the country, its director said it was already  discussing with the government and the relevant institutions, the establishment of two major Singaporean businesses in the country.

"They are in the chemical and machinery sector," he said but declined to give details.

"The good thing is, we are not like the Chinese; we don't come with a lot of people. We come with just a few experts and then hire the locals," Mr Ian said, signalling the centre's desire to help bridge the rising unemployment gap in the country. "Things are a bit slow but if it was faster as we want, we would have set up by now," he said, mentioning the challenges surrounding the acquisition of land in the country as an example.