Tax incentives alone cannot attract investors - forum

Wa, July 24, GNA - Only 26 out of the 2129 businesses registered by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), since 1994 are located in the three northern regions.

Of the number, twenty are cited in the Northern Region, with five and one respectively located in the Upper East and West regions respectively.

This came to light at a day's investment forum organized by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre in collaboration with the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council at Wa.

The forum was to sensitise the business community and other prospective investors in the Region on the 1994 Investment Law, Act 478, which provides wide-ranging incentives for Ghanaians and foreigners for their investment in the country.

Dr Peter Ankrah, Director, Promotions Division of the GIPC said 80 percent of the 2,129 businesses registered by the GIPC are based in the Greater Accra Region.

In discussions that followed, it came out clearly that tax incentives alone were not enough to interest prospective investors to locate their businesses outside Greater Accra, especially in the north.

Factors such as availability of good schools, good health facilities, excellent roads network and communication facilities were the things the investors also take into consideration before making a decision as to locate their businesses in any particular area. Dr Ankrah, who was the main resource person for the forum named Indians, Chinese, British and Lebanese as some of the foreigners whose businesses the GIPC had registered.

In his welcoming address, Mr George Hikah Benson, Deputy Upper West Regional Minister called on prospective investors to take advantage of the Region's investment potential to set up businesses in the Region. He said vast lands for crop plantation development, livestock rearing, irrigation development and poultry and bee keeping were available.

He urged all district assemblies in the Region to strategize on how best to bring to fruition the potentials for investment in their districts.