GIPC on $5bn FDI target

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has set an ambitious $5 billion target in Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to Ghana for this year.

The target is more than double the total FDIs recorded in 2016. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GIPC, Mr Reginald Yofi Grant said he is highly optimistic of the targets considering the numerous investment decisions embarked on by the NPP administration.

“We’ve been between 2.5 to $3billion annually over the past four to five years and we are looking forward to push it further to $5 billion of inward investments which will translate into multiples of tax revenue and jobs,” he stated. Mr. Grant added, “What we then need to see is how much more value, technology and social impact that these investments will bring to the country.”

The GIPC boss was speaking at a meeting with the press in Accra over some major agreements the government of Ghana had entered into with Mauritius in a bid to attract investments into the country. It also followed a recent visit by the Vice President and some government and business delegation to the country to learn and negotiate on new partnerships for investments.

Meanwhile, a comparison of the FDIs between 2015 and 2016, revealed a $3 billion drop. In 2015, total foreign direct investments to Ghana amounted to $2.7 billion. It, however, dropped to $2.4 billion in 2016. But total number of registered projects increased by 10 between the one year period. Projects registered at the GIPC increased from 170 in 2015 to 180 in 2016.

Regardless of how good or otherwise the FDI figures for the first quarter of this year would look the GIPC boss was confident of meeting the target set for 2017.