By
Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
Accra, Oct. 16, GNA – Vice President Dr
Mahamudu Bawumia, on Tuesday, urged British investors to put their money in Ghana,
saying the focused
efforts to provide soft infrastructure and
modernise the economy would help to flourish their businesses.
He said the Government was determined to
utilise technology to ensure efficient social services, value for money and for
becoming the best business-friendly nation in Africa to promote trade and
investments.
Vice President Bawumia was delivering the
keynote address at the Third Edition of the UK-Ghana Investment Summit in
Accra, held on the theme: “The Investment Case for Ghana”.
The two-day Summit, organised jointly by the
UK Government, the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC), the Ministry of Trade
and Industry and the Ghana Investment Promotion Council, attracted captains of
industry, the development partners and Ministers of State, as well as the UK
Business Community and public institutions.
Vice President Bawumia, who is also the Head
of the Economic Management Team, said the various digital infrastructure would
be integrated into a comprehensive platform under the National Identification
System so that individuals would have unique identity cards to access basic
social services without difficulty.
“We will begin to see how all of these things
stick together for our common good,” he stated.
The transformation and modernisation we’re
doing is to support this vision of “Ghana Beyond Aid” because the world now is
about data and when you understand your data, you can manage your economy very
well and ensure efficiency and productivity”.
He, therefore, called for patience from
Ghanaians and, thus, urged them to collectively support the Government’s
innovative policies, saying that, those policies would, in the long run, inure
to the benefit of all Ghanaians.
It would also facilitate the nation’s
aspiration of becoming an industrialised and modern economy to create wealth
and prosperity for all.
Recounting some of the efforts towards
development, he said, the Akufo-Addo-led -Government, on assumption of office
about 20 months ago, embarked on a number of innovative policies to address
some key challenges confronting Ghanaians and foreign investors in accessing
basic social services.
He mentioned the difficulty in accessing
services such as the driver’s licence, securing passport, registration of
business, registration of land titles, among others, which retarded the nation’s
socio-economic development over the past 60 years.
In the bid to address those challenges, the
Vice President said the Government rolled out digital-based policies to address
them, including the Smart Drivers’ Licence and Registration of Vehicles, National
Property Addressing System, e-business and e-passport registration, the ongoing
National Identification System (Ghana Card), among other innovative programmes,
to provide the “soft infrastructure” for both Ghanaians and potential investors
to leverage on for smooth business transactions.
Government officials from both countries held
high-level discussions on infrastructure, trade and investment, manufacturing
and industrialisation and explored potential partnerships between Ghana and UK
businesses and investment opportunities for their mutual benefits.
Mr Iain Walker, the British High Commissioner,
earlier in an address, said the Summit aimed at exploring avenues to build upon
the strong and historic bilateral relations that existed between the nations
for their mutual benefits.
He said the UK viewed Ghana as an equal
partner in development and was committed to building the “Ghana Beyond Aid”
agenda, not just as a rhetoric but to bring it into reality.
He gave the assurance that the UK Government
would work collaboratively with the government of Ghana to realise her
development aspirations, adding that public-private partnerships was the way to
go.
The second-day of the Summit was dedicated to
discussions on the state of the country’s infrastructure and industrialisation
and how potential investors could leverage on it to support the “Ghana Beyond
Aid” agenda.
Mr Yofi Grant, the Chief Executive Officer of
the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, in a presentation on the investment
opportunities in Ghana, said the nation over the years had positioned herself
as the gateway to West Africa, and was strategically located at the centre of
the world to welcome potential investors to the Sub-region.
He outlined some priority areas for investment
and mentioned the energy and power, information communication technology,
banking and finance, trade and industry, oil and gas, road and railway
infrastructure and agriculture.
He emphasised that the Government was looking
for partnerships in other sectors like real estate, and adding value to the
agricultural raw materials so that the country would be competitive on the
global stage.
The second day of the Summit was dedicated to
discussions on the state of the country’s infrastructure and industrialisation
and how potential investors could leverage on it to support the “Ghana Beyond
Aid” agenda.
GNA