Business News of Saturday, 4 September 2021
Source: business24.com.gh
2021-09-04
Yofi Grant, CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC)
Singapore has been rated as Ghana’s largest investment partner for the first half of the year, with US$307.5m in registered Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from that country, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has said.
Singapore was followed by Australia with US$204m, India with US$61.6m, and the Netherlands bringing in US$46.8m.
The country’s investment body added that the world’s two largest economic powers—the United States and China—also made large investments in Ghana during the period.
In all, about US$874m worth of investments from 122 projects in the first half of 2021 were recorded by GIPC.
With respect to the distribution of projects, the centre said the Greater Accra Region surpassed all other regions with 96 projects, accounting for 78.7 percent of all projects filed in the first half of the year.
The other regions that recorded projects are the Ashanti and Western regions with 8 and 9 projects respectively; Bono, Central and Eastern regions with two projects each; whilst Ahafo, Northern and Upper West regions recorded a project each.
According to GIPC, the steady performance can be attributed to the activation of the Ghana COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises (CARES) programme as well as the timely roll-out of several government incentives which prompted a quick recovery of the Ghanaian economy.
The centre said the pace of economic recovery and the probability of pandemic relapses, as well as the possible impact of recovery spending packages on FDI and policy pressures, were elements that will influence investment prospects.