GIPC: Main Objectives for Ghana Investment Promotion Centre for 2018

Yofi Grant, CEO of Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, shares his main objectives for GIPC this year.

“This year holds a lot of excitement for us. Our target is to attract FDI of approximately 10 billion in certain areas. Our economy is in transition from one that has been previously based on resources which we export, such as gold, cocoa, timber, and recently oil and gas. This system does not enable us to participate in the higher value end of the value chain of these resources. For example, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire control approximately 61 to 62% of the cocoa bean industry and production in the world. Yet, if you look at just the chocolate industry, the revenue we drive is only 5% of the global industry. That is not satisfactory. If our two countries produce the bulk of the cocoa, then we need to start adding value to the beans and exporting, which will get us to the higher end of the value chain. We are looking at processing and melting cocoa here, making sure that we are in the value chain and not just the production end. Once we do that, we will then derive more and higher value revenue for a product that already comes from here. We are aiming to do the same for almost all the resources that we have in the country, whether it is gold, bauxite, iron ore, timber, or oil and gas. That in itself means that we need to be more aggressive on the targets we are setting for investors. Secondly, there are significant reforms we need to implement so that we can offer an attractive investment climate. We are examining our investment laws to see how much more attractive we can make them, such that we can remove as much front load cost for investors and businesses coming to Ghana and then create a vibrant business environment that will enable them to operate. You can then apply the taxes evenly. The next step is the institutional reforms. GIPC as an institution itself needs to be properly set up. We need the right people and the right resources to enable us to execute this agenda. We cannot simply facilitate, attract, promote for investors. There also must be investment after care. Investment is not about just bringing the money, it is about the whole life of the investor and the investment. Investment is a relationship, not an event. It is having a great relationship with the investors so that they put their business here and it is sustainable over the long term. We want them to really plant here, live here, do their business here, and make money here. The fourth layer, which is critical for us, is getting the institution correctly structured to enable us to attract the investors and then to retain them. We need to promote Ghana, to create a great relationship where you give investors after care and data on what is happening, plant them in the policy framework of government so that even before the policies come out, you have a good interaction with them to let them know why you are doing what you are doing. Then, it becomes a mutual partnership between foreign direct investment, indigenous or domestic direct investment, and foreign and indigenous portfolio investment. That is a much more sustainable way of running the relationship than just throwing out the policies and expecting the private sector to respond. We want to actually engage them in the policy framework”, says Yofi Grant.

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