GIPC urges land owners to regularize land documents

Management of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) have urged land owners in the country to regularize documents on their lands in order to attract investors.

It said Ghana risk losing investors if land owners continue to release their land to many people at the same time, resulting in undue litigations.

Mr Augustine Acheampong Otoo, Director in charge of Research and Business Development Centre of the GIPC, said this at a day’s sensitization workshop for business institutions and entrepreneurs in Takoradi.

The workshop was aimed at impressing on the participants to see the need to consult the GIPC for expertise guidelines on their business entities as they seek to attract clients.

He said some investors once expressed the desire to site a project at a particular area in the country but disputes surrounding the land delayed the project leading to the relocation of the project to another country.

He said government has created an enabling environment for businesses to grow and the onus rests on the entrepreneurs and Small/Medium Scale enterprises (SMEs) to take advantage of relaxed benefits available at the GIPC to register with it and expand their businesses.

Mr Otoo said foreign investors were exempted from trading in items reserved for local businesses warning that anyone found using dubious means to venture into it would be dealt with according to the law.

Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, the Western Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, implored Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to explore potential business projects in their areas and assist the SMEs to grow their businesses.

He said many areas are endowed with various rich natural resources that must be tapped and this requires that they fashion out development plans for their local business to prepare conducive grounds for expansion through the necessary partnership.

Mr Aidoo said there was the need for MMDAs to identify development projects which can be comfortably marketed by the GIPC as Private Partnership Project (PPP) to enhance the development of their areas.