Corruption ‘killing’ tourism investment – Yofi Grant

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant, has observed that tagging countries as corrupt is adversely affecting tourism investment in such countries.

According to Mr. Grant, there is a direct correlation between corruption and tourism, which results in the decline in investments in the sector.

This, he explained, influenced government’s decision to combat corruption in the country.

“Government still has aggressive efforts to instill fiscal discipline and responsibility and combat corruption. It is known that corruption has a direct correlation with tourism. There are more attractive countries but because of the perceptions of corruption they suffer significantly from tourism investment,” Mr. Grant stated.

Delivering a speech at the Ghana Tourism Investment Forum at the Kempinski hotel, Mr. Grant argued that the establishment of the office of the Special Prosecutor and the digitization of the economy are measures put in place by government to curb corruption and promote business growth.

“In Ghana, there are significant development in the market place to curb corruption; one being the digitization of the economy to remove as much human intervention as possible and to bring efficiency and effectiveness into our businesses. And also, the recently established office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate perceptions or cases of perceptions of corruption. All these to eliminate any forms of corruption that may exist in the system and create the space for business growth and, of course, a clear focus of making sure we have a vibrant economy and business environment”, he explained.

Former President Jerry John Rawlings recently called on Japan and other developed countries not to hold back on offering support to Ghana because the appointment of Martin Amidu as Special Prosecutor is a strong indication of government’s commitment to combat the disease of corruption.