GIPC charts new course

The body mandated to attract foreign investment into the country, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) seems to be making inroads in the Middle East.

Recently, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Centre, Mawuena Trebarh, who has been holding series of high-profile meetings with potential investors on the sidelines of the 3rd edition of the ‘Annual Investment Meeting’ in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), told journalists that “the signs were extremely positive because they’ve asked for more information and are making overtures; perhaps plan a road show around coming to Ghana to see what opportunities exist.”

The event, which started yesterday, April 30 and ends on May 2, 2013, is expected to focus on the future economic landscape, the impact of FDI and the economic prospects for frontier & emerging markets.’

The GIPC boss is therefore seeking to attract investors to the areas of infrastructure, energy and health to invest in Ghana.

For her, “We are going to tailor-make information for potential investors from this part of the world to suit that information gap.

“There are a number of equity wealth management firms that agreed to meet with us around to share with them information about economic developments in our country.”

“What’s been instructive is that a lot of the people that we engaged with since yesterday clearly have new information requirements in terms of economic trends that justify the scale of investments that they are proposing; interest in success stories in business in Ghana that would therefore compel them to also make a significant investment”, she noted.

She attributed this to the fact that most of the country’s investments come from Europe, North America and more recently Asia, which has resulted in a situation whereby potential investors in the Middle-East do not have enough information on Ghana.

That notwithstanding, Mrs. Trebarh said “one of the things that has been interesting for us at the Centre is how we will propose to address the fact that we don’t have the largest population size on the continent and therefore why will they want to come to a place like Ghana and I revert back to the strong selling points…”

“As it is now, it’s gonna be our responsibility to identify some potential projects that might be of interest to them so they can see clear in returns…I’m pleased to say that with a certain quality of information, they would be making an informed decision as they look around the continent that this is where we like to test the waters.”