Bawumia woos Mauritian investors

The Vice-President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has wooed the investor community in Mauritius to buy into the government’s quest to set up a factory in every district in Ghana.

He said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s determination was to make the private sector a major player in Ghana’s economy and called on Mauritian and other businesses to take advantage of the pro-business policies announced in the 2017 budget to invest in Ghana.

At a Breakfast Business Meeting hosted by the Mauritius Minister for Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, in collaboration with the Board of Investment of Mauritius, Dr Bawumia sold the government’s one district, one factory policy to businesses in Mauritius.

Spread of industrialisation

The one district, one factory programme is a public-private partnership to ensure a nationwide spread of industrialisation in all 216 districts in Ghana.

The private sector is expected to provide the investment, although the government can engage in partnerships if such an investment of public funds is adjudged to be prudent and advantageous.

“An industrialisation drive is our main agenda, the one district, one factory is the programme to achieve this. The 216 districts have raw materials and need a push up to get value addition to the products,” Dr Bawumia stated.

Ghana, he said, could not do it alone, adding that the country needed partners within the global context and that was why it cherished the South-South cooperation between Ghana and Mauritius.

Production-based economy

“We want to take advantage of the close relationship to make a major mark as far as our respective economies are concerned,” he said.

The government, he said, had made a major commitment to build an economy based on production and not taxation.

“We have abolished a lot of taxes and levies and are going to abolish all import duties on raw materials and machinery imported into Ghana,” Dr Bawumia said.

The Mauritian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Seetanah Lutchmeenaraidoo, commended Ghana’s commitment to business development and expressed the hope that Ghanaian businesses would also invest in his country.

Building blocks

 The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Free Zones Board, Mr Michael Okyere Baafi, who was part of a large Ghanaian business delegation at the meeting, was confident that the right building blocks had been put in place for rapid take-off.

“The Ghanaian government has introduced the appropriate legislation and we are optimistic that we will soon see many Mauritian businesses counted among those taking up the challenge of the one district, one factory programme.

“We at the Free Zones Board are ready to partner them and make their businesses successful,” he declared.