US to invest $5.4 billion in Ghana, 3 African countries

The United States Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross Jr. – who is in the country with a 60-member delegation from President Donald Trump’s ‘President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa’ (PAC-DBIA) – has revealed the United States has committed some $5.4 billion to boost commercial ties with four African countries.

The four countries include Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire, he revealed during a US-Ghana business forum in Accra.

His visiting entourage includes chief executives of private firms, who are in the country to seek out investment opportunities.

“We are all here to demonstrate our support for what is going on in Ghana and in Africa. The agencies and businesses with me here have committed more than US$5.4billion to expand commercial ties with four countries in Africa,” Wilbur Ross Jr. said.

He indicated, however, that the U.S. government and American businesses will continue to demand transparency and accountability in their dealings with the continent.

“African nations should be extremely comfortable engaging with American companies. American firms operating in Africa are required to abide by an anti-corrupt practices act passed by the US Congress in 1977,” he indicated.

“Everyone wins when there is fair and open competition on a level playing field with a transparent set of rules. We made this point clear in our ministerial meetings; we must fight corruption; it has no place in any democracy and no place in civil society,” he added.

The US anti-corruption law prohibits US companies from bribing foreign officials and engaging in other corrupt practices to win contracts.