Yofi Grant, Chief Executive Officer the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre
• Mr Yofi Grant, the CEO of GIPC has said the country is now moving towards the direction of a value-added exporting and not just a raw material exporter
• He said this is in line with growing the economy and creating opportunities for diaspora community to invest in Ghana
• He also said Ghana’s economy in the last three years is growing steadily at a 7 per cent per annum returns
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Yofi Grant has said that the country is moving away from just a raw material exporter to a product exporter by adding value to it to rope in more revenue to develop the country.
According to him, this is the time to contribute significantly to the growth of Africa.
In his open remarks to kick start the two-day Diaspora Investment Summit in Accra, Mr. Grant said the COVID-19 pandemic compelled lower-middle-income countries like Ghana to be innovative and produce goods to support the economy in wake of the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has made a lot of countries across the world to be innovative and Ghana is one of them. The aim of this function is to bring the diaspora close to us and also bring us close to the diaspora. In 2016, $33 billion diaspora Investments were recorded in Sub-Sahara Africa and Ghana is one of the country’s that contributed greatly to it,” he said.
He also said there are a lot of opportunities here in Ghana and the diaspora should take advantage of them to invest in the country.
“Ghana’s economy in the last three years is growing steadily at a 7 per cent per annum returns and this is a significant growth which must be commended,” he added.
He also noted that the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre is putting in place some measures which will focus on five major sectors that the diaspora can think about to invest.
“Let me highlight the five major areas we are working on to foster development in the country and the diaspora can take advantage of that to invest, the manufacturing sector, the one district one factory, planting for food and jobs, the tourism sector among others,” he stated.
However, Mr. Grant said, the GIPC will also work in line with the Sustainable Development Goals especially the SDG’s one and seventeen.
He said since the core mandate on the GIPC is to create the opportunity for investment, it will work to ensure poverty is defeated and also partner with stakeholders to develop the country.
The theme for the diaspora Investment summit is dubbed, “The New Normal: leveraging diaspora investments to build back better,” and it recognizes the impact of COVID-19 on businesses in the country, hence the reason to engage stakeholders on what measures to adopt to build back better.