Why Invest in Ghana?

Exporting Agricultural Produce

Over the past several years the government of Ghana has given considerable impetus to its drive to attract investment from potential local as well as foreign investors. The government's sound and pragmatic macro-economic policies, vigorous pursuit of good governance, peaceful political atmosphere and a general improvement in the conditions for doing business, have been of good help, constituting the fundamentals for attracting investment.

Ghana has been pursuing a number of reforms aimed at making the country the investment destination of choice in West Africa and, in deed, the whole of Africa, and has enacted a number of laws to enhance the business environment.

The country now has a stable economy, with a good potential for growth.  Actual growth has exceeded targets for three consecutive years. Year 2006 recorded 6.2%, exceeding the set target by 0.2%. And there are strong expectations that the 2007 target of 6.5% can be met.

Ghana has B+ credit ratings from Standard and Poors and from Fitsch and was the first to submit to peer scrutiny under the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

Among the many measures taken by the government towards improving the business environment is the establishment of a one-stop-shop at the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), whose main purpose is to fast-track the registration of investments. The one-stop-shop will soon introduce online application processing and tracking and develop a digital land bank portal and electronic interfaces with the Registrar-General's Department, Ghana Immigration Service, Bank of Ghana, Customs Excise and Preventive Service and the National Communications Authority.

Investment opportunities in Ghana abound across a wide spectrum of sectors: Agriculture and Agro-processing (cocoa, fruits, vegetables), Fisheries, Mining (gold, bauxite, manganese), Banking, Services (finance, health, education), Tourism, Aviation, Real Estate Development, General Infrastructure (roads, railways, ports, agricultural and industrial estates), ICT, Waste Management, and Privatisation of state-owned companies.

Steel Manufacturing Industry

One area of GIPC's investment focus is the large pool of resourceful Non-Resident Ghanaians (NRG). Following the historic "Homecoming Summit" in Accra in 2001, GIPC has been earnestly looking to the NRGs as a critical source of valuable skills, knowledge, expertise, technology transfer and, more significantly, investment capital. It has, therefore, established a Non-Resident Ghanaian Secretariat to deal exclusively with NRGs, with the view to attracting and harnessing their huge resource and investment potential.

In 2006, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre registered 238 projects, with a projected investment cost of US$2,367.85 million. It was the highest number registered since the GIPC Law came into effect in 1994. Out of this Manufacturing accounted for 91.8%.

GIPC registered 2,178 projects between September 1994 and December 2006, involving a total capital outlay of US$4,645.4 million. Of this, 58.1% went into Manufacturing and 25.4% into Services, while the remaining 17% went into General Trading, Tourism, Building and Construction, Export Trade and Agriculture.