Claim:
Ghana had the second-highest foreign direct investment in Africa, following Egypt in 2020.
Verdict: FALSE
According to the World Investment Report, 2021, South Africa recorded the second highest foreign direct investment in Africa for the year 2020.
Full Text
Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC)officially launched its investment summit dubbed, “Spark Up”, on August 3, 2021, at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra.
The Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Mr. Yofi Grant, in his opening remarks stated that Ghana is the second country in Africa, following Egypt, to receive the highest foreign direct investment. Between 23:30 minutes to 25:08 minutes into the video, Mr. Grant said,
“…And for all our size and all that, we were the second highest recipients of foreign direct investments in Africa after Egypt which is a much bigger economy, but on a per capita basis, Ghana is way ahead of all the other countries on the continent…As I said, in 2020, our FDI was $2.7 billion which is about a 140% increase of what we had recorded the preceding year in 2019 of $1.1 billion. The second half results this year is also extremely encouraging because despite the fact that the pandemic has gone through a first wave, a second wave, and in some countries, a third wave, we have already been able to attract some over 830 million US dollars in foreign direct investments…”
Verification:
Defining FDI inflows and outflows
According to the World Bank, “FDI net inflows are the value of inward direct investment made by non-resident investors in the reporting economy…FDI net outflows are the value of outward direct investment made by the residents of the reporting economy to external economies. Outward direct investment is also called direct investment abroad.”
Verification
As Mr. Grant stated, Egypt has retained its position as a leading African country, having received the highest foreign direct investments in Africa. According to the World Investment Report, published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Egypt remains the highest receiver of FDI in Africa, despite a 16% decline in FDI to Africa in 2020.
Coming in second after Egypt is South Africa who recorded $3.1 billion in foreign direct investments in 2020 as indicated in the World Investment Report (pg 42). Some other African countries were able to attract noticeable FDI’s in 2020 with Ethiopia and Nigeria both coming in third with a recorded $2.4 billion in FDI. Mozambique also came in fourth with $2.3 billion in inflow.
Ghana on the other hand, recorded $1.9 billion in FDI in 2020 according to the World Investment Report thus coming fifth in Africa.
South Africa, not Ghana, had the second-highest FDI inflow in Africa for the year 2020, according to the World Investment Report.
Claim 2: Ghana recorded $2.7 billion in FDI in the year 2020
Verdict: FALSE
As stated in the World Investment Report, Ghana recorded $1.9 billion in FDI in 2020, not $2.7 billion as claimed by Mr Grant.
As stated in the World Investment Report, Ghana recorded $1.9 billion in FDI in 2020, not $2.7 billion as claimed by Mr Grant.
Verification
According to the World Investment Report(WIR) 2021 (pg. 41), published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in June 2021, Ghana recorded an FDI inflow of $1.9 billion in 2020, a 52% decline in the 2019 FDI of $3.9 billion.
This is contrary to the $2.7 billion stated by the claimant, Yofi Grant.
Dubawa contacted GIPC and was informed that the claim made by the CEO, Mr Grant, was right. We were referred to the GIPC Full Year 2020 report as proof.
The report sourced information from the World Investment Report (WIR) as well, however, we found that the data presented in the GIPC report was slightly different from the WIR sourced from the UNCTAD website.
In paragraph two of the report, as seen above, it is stated that Ghana came in third in 2020, following Egypt and Nigeria who recorded FDI of $5.5 billion and $2.66 billion respectively. The paragraph is in itself contrary to what was stated by Mr. Grant at the Spark up workshop, where he stated that Ghana was second and not third.
As seen in the images below, page 40 and 41 of the WRI stated that Egypt recorded $5.9 billion in FDI while Nigeria recorded $2.4 billion and Ghana, $1.9 billion all in 2020.
Image: Page 40 (World Investment Report 2021)
Image: Page 41 (World Investment Report, 2021)
To further investigate this claim, Dubawa reached out to the World Bank to corroborate the claim in circulation but is yet to receive feedback from the organisation regarding FDI in Africa, especially Ghana, for the year 2020.
Claim 3: Ghana recorded $1.1 billion in FDI in 2019
Verdict: FALSE
According to the 2020 World Investment Report and data from the World Bank, Ghana recorded approximately $3.9 billion in FDI for the year 2019.
Verification
In 2019, Ghana recorded approximately $3.9 billion in foreign direct investments as indicated by the World Bank and the World Investment Report 2020.
Source: data.worldbank.org
Source: World Investment Report 2020 (UNCTAD)
Ghana’s FDI for 2019 was much higher than the $1.1 billion claimed by Mr. Grant.
Conclusion
Although Ghana has performed remarkably well, considering the pandemic and its related effects on the economy, the country did not record the second-highest FDI inflow in Africa.
Additionally, Ghana did not record $1.1 billion and $2.7 billion in FDI for the years 2019 and 2020 respectively.