{"id":1247096,"date":"2022-11-09T09:47:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T09:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/11\/09\/39-new-firms-licensed-to-operate-in-country\/"},"modified":"2022-11-09T09:47:27","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T09:47:27","slug":"39-new-firms-licensed-to-operate-in-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/11\/09\/39-new-firms-licensed-to-operate-in-country\/","title":{"rendered":"39 New firms licensed to operate in country"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/gfza.jpg\" alt=\"Mike Oquaye Jnr (2nd  from left), CEO of GFZA, speaking at the 3rd annual Investment Week in Accra. With him are John Abuga (left), Director of Compliance, GFZA; Nsiah Asante (3rd from left), the Director of Estate and Zones, GFZA, and Patience Acolor,  Director of the Tema Administrative Office\" class=\" bd-imagestyles-16\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\nMike Oquaye Jnr (2nd from left), CEO of GFZA, speaking at the 3rd annual Investment Week in Accra. With him are John Abuga (left), Director of Compliance, GFZA; Nsiah Asante (3rd from left), the Director of Estate and Zones, GFZA, and Patience Acolor, Director of the Tema Administrative Office <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>Between August last year and the first week of this month, 39 new companies were licensed by the Ghana Free Zones Authority (GFZA) to do business in the country.<\/h2>\n<p>The companies, which are operating in various sectors of the economy, are expected to inject about $230m into it.<\/p>\n<p>The Chief Executive Officer of the GFZA, Mike Oquaye Jnr, who announced this at the 3rd annual Investment Week in Accra, estimated that export earnings from the 39 companies would be about $529 million annually.<\/p>\n<p>The export earnings were expected to be realised from an estimated production value of US$436 million, Mr Oquaye Jr said at a media briefing in Accra last Monday.<\/p>\n<p>He also disclosed that as of 2020, the country had realised US$ 27 billion in investments, revenues and other benefits from the free zones enterprise programme since its introduction.<\/p>\n<p>The week is being used to showcase the authority\u2019s achievements and prospects for both local and foreign businesses in the country. <\/p>\n<p>It is on the theme: &#8220;GFZA: Championing export-led industrial growth in the context of AfCFTA and world trade.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Activities<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>Among activities earmarked for the week-long celebration are engagements with the media and the business community by the GFZA, road shows, one-on-one interactions, interviews, organised enclave visits, among others.<\/p>\n<p>It will be climaxed with a CEO&#8217;s networking session, to be attended by senior government officials, including ministers of state, CEOs and captains of industry, who will discuss, among other issues, the pathway to supporting businesses to optimise exports within Africa and beyond.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inread\" align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/mdundo.com\/widget_song\/2107957\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"125\" width=\"300\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/uT5R4nnA_o.png\" alt=\"Get New DJ Mixes\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Active companies<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to Mr Oquaye, currently, the total number of active companies operating under the zones was 217, out of which 72 were wholly owned indigenous companies, representing 33 per cent, with 74 others, representing 34 per cent, being foreign-owned, while 71 companies, representing 33 per cent, were joint ventures.<\/p>\n<p>He said the situation offered the indigenous companies the opportunity to take advantage of free zones incentives to make an impact on the international market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur programmes are open to all investors, both foreign and local. Moreover, with the opportunities that AfCFTA also offers, we are encouraging Ghanaian-owned businesses to take advantage of the 1.3 billion African market to expand their activities. The<\/p>\n<p>impact of this on the economy cannot be overemphasised,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cedi depreciation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On the depreciation of the cedi, Mr Oquaye said the country was currently grappling with a balance of trade deficit due to the situation of the national currency. <\/p>\n<p>He said it was necessary to increase exports to earn the needed foreign exchange to stabilise the cedi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn export-led industrial growth is one of the most appropriate strategies to achieve economic development, and this has been the mandate of the GFZA. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe importance of the free zones programme in reversing our country\u2019s balance of trade deficit and the depreciating cedi is vital,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"f1d912e5861b2c4420fae850-text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nfbq('init', '771749920311523', {}, {agent: 'pljoomla'});\nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><script type=\"f1d912e5861b2c4420fae850-text\/javascript\">(function(d, s, id) {\n\t\t\t\t  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n\t\t\t\t  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n\t\t\t\t  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n\t\t\t\t  js.src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_GB\/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=342494502508165\";\n\t\t\t\t  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n\t\t\t\t}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mike Oquaye Jnr (2nd from left), CEO of GFZA, speaking at the 3rd annual Investment Week in Accra. With him are John Abuga (left), Director of Compliance, GFZA; Nsiah Asante (3rd from left), the Director of Estate and Zones, GFZA, and Patience Acolor, Director of the Tema Administrative Office Between August last year and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1247098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1247096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1247096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}