‘Ghana among favourable destinations for investment in Africa’

The report on attractiveness survey conducted by Ernst & Young with focus on Ghana, has  revealed that while Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to North Africa had stagnated due to political insecurity, FDI to sub-Saharan Africa had grown.

The survey, which is recognised as a key source of insight on foreign direct investment that examines the attractiveness of a particular region or country as an investment destination, mentioned Ghana as one of the three most favourable African destinations in intra Africa for investments.

The report found that the new trend of cross-country investment within Africa was also growing and that Africans themselves were investing within Africa and mentioned Nigeria and South Africa as some of the African countries investing heavily in Ghana.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Minister Consular in-charge of Information at the Ghana High Commission, London, Madam Zuweira Ibrahim and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra after a roundtable forum in South East London, organised by Invest Africa.

The survey is designed to help businesses make investment decisions and to assist governments to remove barriers for future growth. 

The statement revealed that companies in the United Kingdom remained the biggest in Africa with most of the established companies continually expanding their footprint.

It said new investment into Africa had come especially from the Diaspora and noted that the perception that Africa was losing out on FDI’s stemmed from corruption, geopolitical and security risks.

It said Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Mr Victor Emmanuel Smith, who contributed to the discussion said Ghana would soon be holding a mid-term review of the macro-economic situation in the country and was sure that the review result would boost investor confidence.

Mr Smith said African economies needed to look back to the basics by strengthening infrastructure and the manufacturing sectors in order to sustain long-term investment.

He assured the panellists that Ghana would continue to work towards creating a conducive atmosphere for investors to feel comfortable to put their money in the country.

Mr Smith thanked Ernst & Young and Invest Africa for the work, adding that, Ghana would continue to encourage investors to spread their businesses across the 10 regions in order to help stem the rural/urban migration facing the country.