Yofi Grant: Government to grant tax incentives to investors in SDGs

Yofi Grant, the chief executive officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), says his outfit is working with the government to offer some incentives to investors who invest in sectors that facilitate the government’s achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Speaking at the Ghana-South Africa Business Forum in Accra, Grant said this has become necessary as the SDGs implementation is now tied to the budget as part of reforms to the GIPC investment laws.

“It’s one of the reforms we’re trying to put in our law because definitely once you benchmark SDGs to a budget, it becomes very important for us but even more so that we achieve these SGDs at the fastest possible time but also in partnership with Ghanaians such that whatever foreign direct investment (FDI) comes in, we can actually have Ghanaians implemented in their value and supply chains which makes a lot of sense in elevating our businesses. There is the tariff, non-tariff incentives and different incentives that can be applied and once you’ve read through the mechanisms, you’re good to go,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the chief executive officer of the National Empowerment Fund of South Africa Philisiwe Buthelezi urged both Ghana and South Africa to implement measures to tap into the undiversified trade areas in their respective countries. 

Buthelezi said this will help steer economic growth.

“One way of doing this is increasing the level of investment between the two countries. South African companies have invested in Ghana in sectors such as ICT, infrastructure, communication, business services, real estate, energy and financial services. We’re committed to seeing and facilitating more investment from Ghana into South Africa and more investment from South Africa into Ghana and look forward to joint venture partnerships between our companies and academic institutions to try and strengthen intra-Africa investments,” she stated.

Intra-African trade 

Speaking at the same event, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said intra-African trade is the surest way for the African continent to transform both the economies of all its member states as well as the fortune of the entire African financial and economic situation.

According to President Akufo-Addo, the setting up of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a key architecture that has been established to help Africa achieve the high target of intra-trade among itself as has been achieved by Europe.

On his part, President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that the private sector both in Ghana and South Africa are key to the ability of the two countries to increase trade between themselves.

Nicholas Brown

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