The President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has charged the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) to engage all stakeholders on how to attract even more impressive foreign direct investments (FDI) beyond what it did in 2020.
The GIPC is said to have attracted over US$2.6 billion of foreign direct investments in the year 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which caused a significant reduction in global performance in the area of foreign direct investments.
Addressing the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre’s (GIPC) annual Spark-up Investment Summit at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast today, Tuesday 7th of September 2021, under the theme ‘Maximizing Ghana’s Investment Potential,’ President Akufo-Addo said GIPC has greater potential that should be exploited through open, frank and solution-oriented engagement between them and their stakeholders.
“While global FDI declined by some 42% in 2020 in the midst of COVID-19, FDI inflows recorded by Ghana through the GNPC amounted to some 2.65 billion United States dollars which backed the global trend, representing a significant increase over the 2019 FDI value,” President Akufo-Addo said.
“In keeping up with the importance of the public-private dialogue as recommended by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, I am charging GIPC to use this Summit as a platform for open, frank and solution-oriented engagements between investors, regulators, and investment facilitators. I am hopeful that you will afford the facilitator agencies, regulators and the relevant public officials on one side, the opportunity to engage directly with investors and potential investors on the other, to explore how the various bottlenecks that frustrate and slow-down potential investments, can be quickly unlocked for a smooth establishment of these registered investments to compliment the efforts of government in engineering growth and the creation of jobs for our people,” the President added.
GIPC reforms
The President in his address registered his delight in ongoing efforts aimed at reviewing the Act that set-up the GIPC, (Act 865). He noted that the review together with other institutional reforms will go a long way to position the GIPC to be a worthier partner of government in all of its efforts to re-boot the nation’s economy post COVID-19.
“The ongoing review of the GIPC law (Act 865) and the institutional reforms such as the retooling and refocusing the centre’s operations, to the institution of the diaspora investment desk and the cares delivery unit will be crucial in implementing the outcomes of the Summit.
“They will strengthen GIPC to continue to play a lead role in assisting government to mobilize private sector complimentary investments for the resurgence of the Ghanaian economy,” Akufo-Addo stated.
Investment trends
The Chief Executive Officer of the GIPC, Yoofi Grant, in a presentation on foreign direct investment trends in Ghana indicated that there are ten (10) strong characteristics of the country that have contributed largely to the inflow of FDI hitherto and will yet influence future investments.
According to Mr Grant, Ghana’s democratic governance, resilient economy, trade logistics and infrastructure, vast natural resource deposits and membership of important regional and international bodies, are some of the major factors that are responsible of the success story of GIPC’s FDI efforts.
He further noted that the country’s general hospitality, ease of doing business, enabling competitive business environment, the favourable geographical local and the country’s largely youthful human capital advantage, are the remaining of the 10 factors influencing the nation’s FDI success.
GIPC
The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre is Ghana’s foremost investment attraction and promotion agency under the Office of the President. Guided by the GIPC Act 2013 (Act 865), the Centre courts and facilitates valuable investments to stimulate economic growth, unlock opportunities and spur job creation.
The Centre also provides a diligent team of resource persons to furnish investors with insight and necessary guidelines towards a successful integration into the Ghanaian world of business, and as such remains the first point of contact for all foreign investors coming to Ghana.
Among others, the GIPC exist to “maintain Ghana as a choice destination for investment and ensure that your investments are safe and profitable in an ever-changing economic landscape, some of our strategic functions include”, and to ensure the “formulation of investment promotion policies and plans, incentives, and marketing strategies to attract both foreign and local investments”.
Additionally, the GIPC also initiates and supports measures that will enhance the investment climate for Ghanaian and non-Ghanaian enterprises, participating in promotional activities such as exhibitions, conferences, and seminars to stimulate investment and to collect, collate analyze and disseminate information about investment opportunities and sources of investment capital, incentives available to investors and go an extra mile to provide advisory services to investors.
Wilberforce Asare
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