President Akufo-Addo has urged facilitating agencies affiliated to the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) to work hard and protect the enabling environment that has made Ghana an attractive investment destination in the sub-region.
He made the call on Tuesday September 7, 2021, at the maiden edition of Spark Up, an annual investment summit organized by the GIPC in collaboration with the Ministries of Information, Finance and Trade.
According to the President, the country has over the years carved a niche for itself as an attractive investment destination that needs to be leveraged to drive in more investments into the country.
He said despite the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic, government has the blueprint for the revitalization of the Ghanaian economy but needs the needed investments that will help accelerate this rebound.
“Government has made deliberate efforts at determining the investment priorities of our country and taken steps to mobilize the necessary resources for the growth of these priority areas. This is because we want to help transform Ghana from being a mere producer and exporter of raw materials to a value-added, industrialized economy, that will provide opportunities, jobs and prosperity for all Ghanaians, thereby creating a WISER nation, that is wealthy, inclusive, sustainable, empowered and resilient one,” he said.
This the President called on the GIPC and its partner agencies to engender a more constructive interaction with investors in a bid to market the country in areas such as trade and investment, as well as skills and knowledge development to bring home the needed investments.
Present at the summit was the Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Yofi Grant, Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Herbert Kraper, Deputy Minister for Finance Abena Osei-Asare, Minister of State at the Ministery of Finance Charles Adu Boahen, the United States Ambassador to Ghana Stephanie Sullivan and heads of agencies.
On his part as GIPC boss, Mr. Grant said his outfit is working at increasing the country’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the medium to long-term by collaborating with policy makers to review, revise and revamp FDI strategies to make them more fit-for-purpose and operationalize policy measures to support value-chain linked FDI so as to boost FDI in the digital economy.
He said in line with this, the GIPC has restructured its operations by establishing the Diaspora Investment Desk to increase diaspora engagement and investments and an Aftercare Division to streamline investor aftercare and encourage reinvestment in key sectors of the country’s economy.
