Ghana still considering off-shore banking

Ghana is considering offering off-shore banking services on the advice of an international investment advisory group, the co-ordinator of the group said.

ACCRA: "A committee within the group is looking at off-shore banking as one of the services Ghana might offer and I think the group is in fact in favour of it," Barbara Bentum-Williams said during a one-day meeting of the group in the capital of the West African country.

The 26-member Ghana International Advisory Council was established by President John Kufuor in May to advise him on how to maximise foreign direct investment to the cocoa and gold producing nation of 18 million people.

The council is made up chiefly of private Ghanaian and international business executives, including Syamal Gupta, chairman of Indian automaker Tata, Robert Patterson, executive managing director (international operations) for CMS Energy, and Jean Louis Home, Africa and Middle-East director of Heineken.

Giving an overview of action taken by the government since the council’s maiden meeting in May, President Kufuor who is the group’s chairman said: "Not much progress has been made on the proposals for the establishment of an offshore banking enclave."

But a senior government official said that Kufuor was "open to the idea" of Ghana becoming West Africa’s first off-shore banking haven. Offshore banking was the major alternative investment proposal made at the meeting in May.

According to aides, Kufuor, himself a businessman before his election two years ago, is eager to see dramatic changes in the Ghanaian economy before the end of his first four-year term. He promised "a golden age of business" at his inauguration in January 2001.

"The truth is that we have not got a lot of time. The administration is already two years old, that is half-way through its mandate," he told the advisory council this week.

Ghana is considering offering off-shore banking services on the advice of an international investment advisory group, the co-ordinator of the group said.

ACCRA: "A committee within the group is looking at off-shore banking as one of the services Ghana might offer and I think the group is in fact in favour of it," Barbara Bentum-Williams said during a one-day meeting of the group in the capital of the West African country.

The 26-member Ghana International Advisory Council was established by President John Kufuor in May to advise him on how to maximise foreign direct investment to the cocoa and gold producing nation of 18 million people.

The council is made up chiefly of private Ghanaian and international business executives, including Syamal Gupta, chairman of Indian automaker Tata, Robert Patterson, executive managing director (international operations) for CMS Energy, and Jean Louis Home, Africa and Middle-East director of Heineken.

Giving an overview of action taken by the government since the council’s maiden meeting in May, President Kufuor who is the group’s chairman said: "Not much progress has been made on the proposals for the establishment of an offshore banking enclave."

But a senior government official said that Kufuor was "open to the idea" of Ghana becoming West Africa’s first off-shore banking haven. Offshore banking was the major alternative investment proposal made at the meeting in May.

According to aides, Kufuor, himself a businessman before his election two years ago, is eager to see dramatic changes in the Ghanaian economy before the end of his first four-year term. He promised "a golden age of business" at his inauguration in January 2001.

"The truth is that we have not got a lot of time. The administration is already two years old, that is half-way through its mandate," he told the advisory council this week.