Business News of Saturday, 9 February 2013
Source: citifmonline.com
Over 24,000 jobs are expected to be created due to registered foreign direct investment projects in the country last year.
According to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), out of the number, over 22,000 will be for Ghanaians with the remaining allocated to expatriates.
This is an increase of 5.46% over the 21,043 jobs created for Ghanaians in 2008.
Investments into the country within the last quarter of 2012 recorded a plunge despite uncertainties due to the elections.
Usually, investments into Ghana during election years drop as compared to non election years.
For example, according to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, in the last quarter of 2007 a little over 300 new projects were recorded as inflows but the following year 2008 which was an election year the figure decreased to 257. This figure increased to nearly 400 in 2010.
The trend was no different last year as investments reduced to nearly 400 as compared to the over 500 projects recorded in 2011.
Despite the drop, the acting CEO of the GIPC, Mawuena Trebah told Citi Business News the figures are positive.
“During an election year, obviously, there is a bit of uncertainty with regards to the direction of the political leadership or what the regulators will be doing going forward in terms of policy. So many investors will make conscious decisions to hold on to their investment decision and not make a final decision until after elections are over. The reality is that Ghana is on the upward spur.”
According to her, looking at the level and quantum of interest, particularly from Asia the Asia-pacific countries and even from Latin America, “I think any astute individual who is assessing the business climate will recognize we have an exciting level of opportunity to build on a level of interest. We have an excellent track record in terms of economic stability, infrastructure-we really do not have peers particularly in the sub-region.”
She added that although there was a decline which is primarily due to the fact that “investors will also make a decision when they are clear on the stability of the political environment and subsequently we going to continue to work very hard to build on those pluses and make sure we see an increase getting 2013.”
The GIPC estimates the projects for the last quarter of 2012 at a little over a billion Cedis.
The foreign direct investment component of the estimated value of the projects was nearly GHC 9 billion and the local currency component was a little over a billion Cedis.