Make Ghana an investment hub for Nigerians – Tutu Agyare


According to the Director of Marketing and Public Relations at the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Edward Ashong-Lartey, in 2010 Nigerian businesses accounted for about 60 percent of foreign investment in Ghana.

Speaking at the 12th MTN Business World Executive Breakfast meeting, the second of the 2014 edition of the series, Tutu Agyare encouraged Ghana to leverage on the opportunities for more investments.

‘The Nigerians are sometimes perceived to just be using here (Ghana) as a leisure destination but trust me they are really looking for investment opportunities. Nigeria imports 2,000 tonnes of salt a year from Brazil; we have extra ordinary salt potential which is hugely underutilized. Why don’t we get Nigerians to partner with to get round the issues of importing salts into their country’, he stated.

The number of Nigerians in Ghana is unknown however some argue that Nigerians in Ghana are between 2 and 3 million, with recent data presented by the former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, showing that as at 2011 there were about 71,000 Nigerians studying in Ghana.

He said Nigeria had a very developed oil service industry after drilling oil for over 60 years and Ghana must be ready to take full advantage of their experienceThe CEO of Nubuke Investments, Tutu Agyare has challenged Ghana to position itself as an investment destination for Nigerians and take full advantage of the growing number of Nigerians visiting the country..

Mr. Tutu Agyare then cautioned that ,’If we don’t leverage the relationship, we end up in a situation where they are just coming here to buy holiday homes, to build hotels, spend their weekends as opposed to treating us as a very serious investment destination’.

Responding to questions as to why only 4.8% of lending by domestic banks go into the agricultural sector he explained that,’ I think that lending will take place where the bank thinks, there will be a return. If you speak to the banks you will find that in a lot of instances the loses from agriculture tend to be far high than any other sector. The flip side of this is that the most successful domestic sector we have in this country is that cocoa and 80-85% of cocoa is grown by small holders’.

The MTN Executive Breakfast series, which is in its fourth year, has become the leading platform for executive briefings and networking for CEOs, senior management professionals and entrepreneurs in Ghana.

MTN is confident that these insightful business executive engagements create opportunities to add value and brighten the lives of stakeholders, personally and professionally.

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