Ghana's FDI up by 118.02 %

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) recorded an increase in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by 118.02 percent into the country during the first quarter of 2011, compared to first quarter of 2010 investment figures.

The Centre, during the period registered FDI of GH 527.63 million, compared to GH 225.88 million recorded during the same quarter last year.

The total foreign equity stood at GH 276.48 million with the initial equity transfers being GH103.35 million during the period under review.

Meanwhile, GIPC registered 109 new investment projects during the first quarter of 2011, indicating an increase of 0.93 percent, compared to 108 registered projects in the corresponding quarter of 2010.
The total estimated value of these registered projects was GH 567.66 million, a substantial increase of 101.13 percent compared to GH 263.42 million recorded in the first quarter of 2010.

The total number of jobs expected to be created for Ghanaians from the projects registered in the first quarter of 2011 amounted to 6,497.

This is an increase of 18.80 percent over 5,469 expected jobs recorded for same period of 2010.There was however a decrease of 22.36 percent in the expected jobs created for expatriates from 653 for first quarter 2010 to 507 for first quarter 2011

Mr. George Aboagye, Chief Executive Officer, GIPC at a media conference in Accra said: Results for the first quarter of 2011 vindicate our declaration of this year as the Year of hope and Action.

“We at the Centre planned to ride high and capitalized on the good international image and the prevailing promising domestic investment environment to aggressively market the investment opportunities in the country.”

He indicated that the operational results over the last two years shows that FDI has been increasing on average by approximately 70 percent annually. But we cannot say the same for local investments or joint ventures.

“Our focus is to enhance the importance of domestic investor in the development of the country. Partnering domestic investments with FDI, we believe is the only means by which we can build the capacity and grow our domestic investors.”

Mr. Aboagye revealed that between January and March this year, officials of the Centre toured all regions and interacted with Regional, District and Metropolitan Authorities, Planning officers and private sector to encourage them to help identify investment opportunities, call for project proposals, and to explain to them the role and service of the GIPC.

He encouraged domestic inventors to: develop and invest in good business ideas or concepts; increase their capacity to partner other investors both local and international and encourage local financial institutions to support worthy projects.

“We believe our efforts will encourage the improvement in the investment at the districts and regional levels to ensure the spreading of investment projects across the length and breadth of the country.”

“The first quarter of 2011 witnessed fourteen inward investment missions from countries that have been targeted by the Centre including Germany, United Kingdom, US, Turkey, South Africa, India and China.

“The delegation was in the country to explore investment opportunities in the area of Real Estates development, Manufacturing of Steel and glass, Agro Processing, Mining and Petroleum Services and Pharmaceuticals,” he stated.

Six out of the 10 regions directly benefited from the registered projects during the quarter. The regions are Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, Northern and the Western regions.78.90 percent of all the projects registered are located in the Greater Accra region.

India, with 19 projects, topped the list of countries with the highest number of registered projects. With US$70.50 million, as estimated investment, a joint venture between Britain/Belize topped the list of countries with the largest value of investments registered during the quarter.