Ghanaians In Canada Asked To Invest Back Home.

A technical adviser at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Sam Mensah, has appealed to Ghanaians resident abroad especially in Canada, to create investment protocols with various financial institutions in Ghana to enable them invest positively back home. He said, there are about 21 worldwide recognized financial institutions in Ghana that can help them create investment portfolios to enable them invest successfully in the country if they want to.

Dr. Sam Mensah, made the appeal when he launched the Golden Jubilee Bond in Toronto, Canada, on February 16. According to him, the bond has five years maturity period with Ghanaian citizens or permanent residents and Ghanaian registered institutions in Ghana as eligible buyers and issued in multiples of GHc 5 million for institutional investors with interest rate of 15.5% for individuals and 15% for institutions.

The technical adviser on finance and economic planning, observed that interest rates and inflation rates have been trending down for the past five years and can predict that in 2013 it will rally around 5.5% single digit praising the achievement on high remittances paid by Ghanaians resident abroad.

He stated that the country has passed the stage where governments can lie about it's performance therefore people should stop propagating falsehood about the successful running of the country presently which has received series of awards from internationally recognized financial institutions. "The current rating of the country with B plus by Standard and Poor, Fincth and Moody's can not be described as fuss since they are international institutions and can not lie about the performance of the country's finance and economic planning achievements” he explained.

Dr. Sam Mensah, advised people to desist from propagating false information about the country since it will go a long way to affect the running of the country in so many diverse ways adding that the government of today is a listening government therefore when people have complaints about certain policies and decisions, they should channel them through their various associations for possible reactions instead of living on "they and us syndrome".

Here he was reacting to a complaint registered at the launching by one attendant about the high rates of taxes and bribes collected illegally at the various ports of entry making it impossible for many Ghanaian residents abroad to invest back home therefore imploring him to raise it to the government to change the tide.

Mr. Kwabena Asare, the Consul General of Ghana in Toronto, commenting described the Golden Jubilee Bond as a great effort by the present government to woe citizens abroad to invest in their motherland. Whiles he described the Diaspora festival as a political gesture to woe investors, he described the Golden Jubilee Bond as economic gesture instituted by the present government and therefore calling on all to embrace it to make it achieve its aim.

So far the bond has been launched in Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America [U.S.A] and Canada with sales going on at various High Commissions. The Program was organized by the Toronto Consulate office under the auspices of Mr. Kwabena Asare, Dr. Yaw Twum-Barima was the MC for the occasion.