Invest in Ghana - Akufo-Addo woos Fortune 500 businesses

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has encouraged American companies to invest in Ghana, with the assurance that their investments will be safe.

According to him, his government has created a business-friendly economy in Africa to enable the private sector to thrive, and, therefore, investing in Ghana would be a win-win situation for the investor and the West African country.

“I urge representatives of Fortune 500 companies present here to look at Ghana and not to ignore her. You can choose to invest through the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) or to set up as a company in our free zones enclave.

“Regardless of where the investment is, the government has instituted a number of incentives for the investors, depending on the nature of the activity or the location of the investment.

“This is to ensure that your investment succeeds,” Nana Akufo-Addo said at the Fortune 500 Business Executive Meeting in New York, the United States of America, on Monday, 24 September 2018.

“I assure you that your investments will be safe, and, in fact, will be protected by law. I’m confident that through our policies, we can bring greater dignity in the lives of millions of people in Ghana and beyond,” he added.

The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States of America corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes both public and privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available.

Nana Akufo-Addo, in his bid to woo American businesses to Ghana, told the gathering that as proof of Ghana’s business-friendly economy, two car giants, as well as Google and ExxonMobil, are in the country for business opportunities.

“Our modern successes in making progress in these areas are being recognised by the global business community that is now eager to engage in Ghana. Recently, our overarching goal to diversify our economy from being a producer and exporter of raw materials to dealing with the world on basis of things we make, received a major boost when two global car giants, Volkswagen of Germany and Sinotruck announced they will be establishing various assembling plants in Ghana with intention in the medium-term of producing their vehicles in the country,” he said.

The president added that: “Tech giant Google has also decided to base its African Artificial Intelligence centre in Ghana, which will make it the first in Africa.

“ExxonMobil has also signed an agreement with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to undertake deepwater oil exploration and production.”

Nana Akufo-Addo reiterated that for his government, the rapid enhancement of direct investments was an essential ingredient in realising his vision of a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’, which he explained as “building in Ghana, a strong productive economy capable of generating a dignified prosperous existence for its people and banishing poverty.”

According to him, “Ghana is forging ahead, we want to be a force to reckon with on the continent and in the world.”

He noted that under his leadership, “Ghana will develop, industrialise, educate its people and add value to its abundant natural resources.”