Ken Ofori-Atta leads non-deal roadshow in Asia

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, is leading a government delegation on a non-deal roadshow in Hong Kong and Singapore from Friday, February 9, 2018 to Wednesday, February 14, 2018.

The roadshow is to expose new business opportunities in Ghana to investors and attract Asian fund holders to invest in Ghana bonds.

The move is also in line with the government’s vision of becoming a world-class financial hub in the sub-region.

In the 2018 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, government gave a strong indication to take steps to position Ghana as the financial services hub in the sub-region.

A task force was set up to ensure that Ghana becomes the preferred headquarters of all banks operating in the sub-region and the hub of financial technology and payment systems for the region, among others.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta also indicated in the budget statement that the hub would host international private equity and venture capital firms to support entrepreneurship and assess to long-term capital by the private sector in the sub-region.

The roadshow will therefore afford the delegation the opportunity to study best practice to inform Ghana’s policies and programmes for the financial sector.

The delegation includes the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Deputy Ministers of Finance, Energy and Information, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC); the Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission and officials from the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance.

Mr Ofori-Atta, who acknowledged the importance of the tour to Asia, noted that “Ghana Beyond Aid’ calls for a rethink of our trajectory, our systems and our aspirations. We are looking at creating awareness of business opportunities in Ghana, as well as whip up interest in our future bonds for a possible Samurai and Panda bond issuance. This requires us to begin onshore education of Ghana and sell a compelling narrative of our growing fiscal strength and budget sobriety.”

While in Asia, the delegation will meet officials in both the public and private sectors, including portfolio/asset managers and hold roundtable discussions with officials of the Singaporean Finance Ministry, Central Bank and the Singapore Stock Exchange.

They will highlight investment opportunities in the financial services sector, ICT, energy, transport infrastructure, especially railway, real estate, agri-business, manufacturing and industry.

Ghana’s economy out-performed other Sub-Saharan African Equity Markets on the back of favourable macro-economic prospects and strong investor confidence.

In the current budget, government has many programmes and policy initiatives with incredible potential to transform the country’s economy and achieve a ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ in the medium to long-term.

It is expected that this mission will strengthen Ghana’s investment and trade relations and also lay the foundation for the setting up of an Asia Business Council led by GIPC.

A private sector group from Ghana put together by the GIPC, will also be in Singapore at the same time to explore business opportunities in the Asian Market.