Mr. Yofi Grant, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), has urged innovators to create inventions that would solve Africa’s problems in order to attract government’s support and investors.

He said innovations should be critical for the African market and have the capacity to thrive as a profitable venture.

Mr. Grant raised these concerns when addressing the media on the sidelines of the 2017 Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) in Accra on Monday.

He said for Africa to rub shoulders with other continents in terms of innovation, it would have to revise its educational structure.

He said the continent needed the kind of education that would give the people the power to create and make more wealth.

Mr Grant said the country needed innovators who would create something ground-breaking and not take someone’s idea and slightly change it.

“It must be innovative, not just taking somebody’s idea and changing it and say it is good for us,” he said.

Mr Grant, however, noted that there were a lot of brilliant innovators in Ghana and it, therefore, behoved on the Government to create conducive environment to embrace them.

“The responsibility is on the Government to make sure that we can actually embrace a lot of these innovations which are usually in the informal sector and, therefore, do not get the attention of the Government,” he noted.

The sixth edition of the IPA competition is on the theme: “African Innovation: Investing in Prosperity.”

The event is being organised by the African Innovation Foundation (AIF), in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and Ghana at 60 Secretariat.

It aims at strengthening African innovation ecosystems through competition.

The competition had been successful in Ethiopia (2012), South Africa (2013), Nigeria (2014), Morocco (2015) and Botswana (2016).

 Source: ghananewsagency.org

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) signed an MoU with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) to promote trade and investment between China and Ghana during the 2017 China-Ghana Trade and Investment Forum held in Beijing, China.

The forum brought together more than 40 business organisations from Ghana and over 200 business entities from China to share with the Chinese business community various investment opportunities in Ghana.

Mr. Yofi Grant, Chief Executive Officer, signed the MoU on behalf of the GIPC. In attendance at the forum were the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; the Senior Minister, Mr. Yaw Osafo Marfo; the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Sun Baohong; Ghana’s Ambassador to China, H.E. Edward Boateng; Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Alan Kyeremanteng; Mr. Joe Ghartey, Minister for Railway Development; and Mr. Kwaku Asiamah, Minister for Transport among other dignitaries.

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has urged Ghanaians in the Diaspora to invest in the national economy to accelerate national growth. He said it was a well-known fact that the Ghanaian Diaspora possessed tremendous assets, knowledge, skills and talents. He, therefore, urged them to invest these in the macro, small and medium enterprises which would be an effective way of creating jobs and generating income in the local community.

He said Ghana’s socio-economic development and Diaspora remittances were inextricably linked and, thus, called on them to support the efforts of government to achieve the objectives of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 of Sustainable Development Goals to reduce extreme poverty and improve the standards of living of Ghanaians.

Vice President Bawumia said this in a speech read on his behalf by Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the Minister of Information, at the closing ceremony of the 2017 Ghana Diaspora Homecoming Summit in Accra on Friday.

The three-day event was held on the theme: ‘‘Development, Opportunity, Value: Welcome Home’’, which attracted Ghanaians in the Diaspora to access the opportunities in the economy.

The summit served as an avenue for mobilising and harnessing the resources and skills of Ghanaian Diasporan Community to accelerate economic growth.

There were exhibitions by corporate entities and state institutions who demonstrated their support for the objectives of the summit aimed at showcasing the opportunities and business prospects in the country.

The Vice President noted that using Diasporan assistance was yet to be fully explored and indicated that if the Ghanaians in the Diaspora invested in the macro-economy it would strengthen the government policy for their mutual benefits.

He acknowledged the contribution of Ghanaians living abroad saying ‘you contributed significantly through remittances to your families at home that enhanced their economic life span.’

‘‘Your remittances increased household incomes and paid some basic needs such as food, education, housing and medical services and helped to improve the standards of living,’’ he explained.

He said it was part of the policy of the government to work hard through the ‘‘One district, One Factory’’ imitative aimed at industrialising the national economy.

He noted that the nation’s economic growth had been largely urban-based leaving behind rural economy and, thus, compelling rural-urban migration and believed that the policy would help to evenly develop the economy and accelerate growth.

‘‘The One district, One Factory is our attempt to catalyst broad-based and inclusive economy,’’ he noted.

Vice President Bawumia said the government would ensure that the cumbersome procedures for setting up businesses and enterprises were reduced to the barest minimum to enhance the country’s competitiveness.

‘‘In keeping with our promise to ensure that Ghanaians living abroad play positive roles in the socio-economic and political development of our country, Ghana’s diplomatic missions abroad are serving as focal points for running Ghanaian experts and attracting Ghanaian investors into the industrial sector, ’he explained.

He urged Ghanaians abroad to serve as avenues for attracting trade and tourism promotion, saying return home as investors or trade delegation from your countries of residence.

‘‘If we direct our energies to these matters, then we will be serving our nation and building a resilient economy,’’ he stressed.

Dr. Bawumia noted that government was poised to address the issue of transparency and respond to their needs in a timely manner.

“The rationale for establishing the Diasporan Relation Office at the Presidency was to remove barriers that will prevent you from accessing the services of government and state institutions and create a sustainable and long-term relations for our mutual benefit”, he said.

Source: ghananewsagency.org

The Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) has, in the first quarter (Q1) of this year alone, registered more than US$3billion worth of projects.

The Centers’ Q1 performance translates into 49 new registered projects out of which the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) component of the estimated value of registered projects was US$2.95 billion with indigenous projects making up the rest.

Commenting on this performance, Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Yofi Grant, said that the first quarter has been an exciting period for the GIPC following the initiation and commencement of some critical business-friendly policies and projects of the new political administration.

He said some of government’s innovative policies and programmes such as the “One District, One Factory”, “Planting for Food and Jobs,” Accra Marine Drive” project and improved tax system in the 2017 Budget Statement have boosted investor confidence, leading to the influx of visits by potential investors in the first quarter.

This approach, Mr. Grant said, has also rejuvenated local businesses to ready themselves for possible partnerships with their foreign counterparts.

“GIPC’s new direction is to take business people on all missions, to have B2B and direct engagements, and to prepare investment memoranda for all activities undertaken. The GIPC recorded an appreciable level of FDI inflow within the period,” he said.

In 2016, the total FDI into the country was about US$2.4 billion, an amount which was lower than the US$2.7 billion recorded in 2015. But having been appointed to head the government agency responsible for lobbying investors into the country, Mr. Grant said there’s the need to have last year’s total inflows doubled to spur job creation.

“Judging by the current approach of the staff and management to their activities of promoting investments and delivering all round positive results, the GIPC is confident of achieving its set target of US$5 billion for the year 2017 and to also make Ghana the best investment destination in Africa,” he said.

Based on the projects registered by the GIPC in this quarter alone, about 2,551 jobs are expected to be created out of which 343 are expected to go to expatriates.

According to the GIPC 2017 first quarter report, the manufacturing sector received the highest amount in FDI inflows. Out of the US$3 billion registered in projects, more than US$2.5 billion went into manufacturing, followed by “Liason” which had a little over US$400 million in inflows.

Some of the notable projects registered in the period under review include: Early Power Limited, which is to manufacture power for sale to ECG, at an estimated project value of US$2.5 billion; and Afcons Infrastructure Limited, which will see the construction of railway track including construction of embankment and bridges, with an estimated project value of US$398 million.

China, with 10 projects, was the country with the highest source of investments in the first quarter of 2017. However, with an FDI value of US$2.43 billion, Netherlands topped the list of countries with the largest value of investments registered during the quarter.

Apart from the Upper East and West, and Central regions, all the other regions will benefit from the registered projects.

The Greater Accra Region accounts for the highest number of project, 39 out of the total 49 newly registered projects for the quarter.

Source: thebftonline.com 

The government wants to create a more conducive environment that will encourage Ghanaians living abroad to invest in the economy. It is doing this by stabilising the currency, reducing the cost of electricity and strengthening the macroeconomic fundamentals.

It has, therefore, called on Ghanaians living in the diaspora to engage their respective country embassies and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) to know more about the processes involved for them to invest back home without the usual stress they encounter.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GIPC, Mr Yofi Grant, said this when the government delegation attending the US-Africa Business Summit in Washington D.C. met with Ghanaians living in the United States at the Ghana mission.

The meeting, attended by Ghanaians from the tri-state of Washington; Maryland, Virginia as well as Ohio and Chicago, among many others, was meant to afford the Ghanaian community the opportunity to interact with the government officials and to solicit their views on how to make the country a better place for them to invest.

“Over the last couple of years, foreign direct investment into the country has hovered around $2.5 billion per annum when remittances from Ghanaians living in the

Diaspora is about $5 billion and rising,” he said.

According to him, the gap alone is a testament to the fact that there is the need for the GIPC and the government, for that matter, to help create the environment for more of such funds to enter the country to accelerate development.

“Ghana is your country and we need to do all we can to invest in the economy to create jobs for our brothers and sisters and relatives who depend on us for their daily bread,” Mr Grant said.

The economy

Briefing them on the energy situation in the country, he said the government was working to ensure that the cost of electricity is made affordable to enable industries to reduce their cost of operations.

“For instance, the Ministry of Energy has cancelled some power purchase agreements the previous government entered into with some foreign companies because the charges per kilowatt hour was too expensive,” he said.

He also noted that efforts had been made to drastically reduce the level of power outages in the system.

Mr Grant said the government was also working to improve the macroeconomic indicators to make doing business in Ghana much cheaper for investors such as Ghanaians living the diaspora.

On the depreciation of the cedi against the United States dollar, he said the government had worked to stabilise the local currency and gave an assurance that efforts would be made to ensure that it did not rise beyond its present level.

“A stable currency allows businesses to plan and those who buy in dollars but get paid in cedis will also have their funds intact because it will not be eroded through depreciation of the local currency,” he said.

Mr Grant also said the government was working to grow the economy by 6.3 per cent at the end of the year, banking his hopes on the revival of industries that went down on their knees due to hardships within the economy.

Tax burden

He said the Treasury Bill rates which hovered about 18 per cent in the last couple of years been reduced and was now at about 13.6 per cent.

Mr Grant said the phenomenon was a positive development and urged the banks to respond to that quickly to bring down the interest rates for businesses to borrow.

He also noted that the government had embarked on aggressive tax reforms to ensure that businesses benefited.

On development within the ports, he said, the government had also introduced tighter measures to stop the fraudulent activities within the entry points, particularly the ports.

He told the gathering that some corrupt ports officials had been placed under interdiction for their alleged involvement in some fraudulent activities that denied the state several billions of Ghana cedis.

Source: graphic.com.gh

Kenyan businessmen will have opportunity to explore investment and trade opportunities in West Africa following a trade expo to be held in Ghana in November. The trade expo targeting established and emerging businessmen is aimed at enhancing trade relations between Kenya and Ghana following seven key trade agreements signed between the two countries in December 2014.

The bilateral agreements were established to position Ghana as the gateway for trade to West Africa while Kenya will help in accessing the East African region. Briefing the media Ghana’s acting High Commissioner to Kenya, Mr. Nuku Kamsa-Quarshie, said the expo will boost intra-African trade by enabling businessmen explore trade opportunities in the two countries. Kamsa-Quarshie said Kenyan’s manufacturers have prime opportunity to explore business in Ghana following initiatives like free zones and building of one factory in every district which are meant to enable manufacturers from outside set-up profitable ventures. “Ghana is now embracing private-sector driven, tertiary education with a surge of Private Universities having come up in the last 4-5 years.

However, there is no Tertiary institute for the Hospitality industry which causes a great gap when it comes to Tourism Development. Ghana is ideally placed to become a hub for Hospitality training in West Africa just as Kenya is for East Africa,” said Kamsa-Quarshie. According to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre between 1994 and 2015, Kenya companies in the country invested in manufacturing (41%), services (27%), general trading (18%), building and construction (9%), agriculture (5%) sectors.

The founder of the Kenya Trade Expo Ghana, Mrs Leah Nduati Lee, said the event will help link businesses between Ghana and Kenya directly, resulting in tangible and measurable Intra-Africa trade. Mrs Lee said Kenyans and Ghanaians can profitably engage in knowledge sharing, joint ventures and partnerships. “Ghana and Kenya are uniquely positioned to act as role models to other African Nations, of how Intra-Africa trade can strengthen our Africans Economies,” she said.

Mrs Lee said Ghana’s Ministry of Business Development is targeting to drive entrepreneurship through establishment of accelerator and incubator programs. The expo to be held at the will involve a three-day workshop, keynote addresses, and B2B meetings.

The Theme of the Expo is Breaking New Frontiers in Intra- Africa Trade. Mrs Lee said the expo will also provide participants a platform for understanding business policies and procedures in both countries. The first Annual Kenya Trade Expo in Ghana took place in 2015, attracting a crowd of over 2,000 emerging and established business people, government and non-government officials and supporters.

According to the Export Promotion Council Kenya in 2014 Kenyan exports to Ghana were valued at US$4.5 million against US$3.5 million. Ghana has moved up from 114 to 108 in the Ease of Doing Business Ranking by the World Bank between 2014 and 2016. According the World Bank Doing Business Report 2016 Ghana made trading across borders easier by upgrading infrastructure at the port of Tema, and reducing the documentary and border compliance time for importing.

Source: ghanaweb.com