The Ghana Nigeria Business Council (GNBC) is set to hold a business and investment conference in Atlanta, United States of America (USA) on Tuesday October 18, 2022.
Alongside would be a “B2B/B2G” Matching session for Ghanaian and Nigerian businesses. Registration for participation of this session has been extended to September 16, 2022 from September 2, 2022.
Ms Nadia Takyiwa-Mensah, Executive Secretary, GNBC, said the conference which has support from the Nigerian High Commission, Ministry of Trade Industry and Investment Nigeria, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, US Embassy Ghana, Nigeria Consulate in Atlanta, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Ghana ExportPromotion Authority (GEPA), among others,was aimed at promoting businesses of the two countries as well as exploring business opportunities in the USA.
She said this when the council briefed the media on the conference in Accra yesterday.
Ms Takyiwa-Mensah noted that the conference would focus on six industries including oil and gas, manufacturing, services (hospitality, fintechetc), green economy, agriculture and healthcare.
“This conference will be the first time we are seeing two of Africa’s giants and leading economies on the continent step out together to promote African individuals and its exciting potential for investments to businesses in the USA,” she stated.
“This high-level conference comes at an important time where the unity and spirit of African countries is no longer a dream but an action which is being driven via the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and also where the USA continues to drive its interest in investment, business and collaborations via its US/Africa agendas,” she added.
Noting that the event delivery would be hybrid with speakers being both in-person and virtual, Ms Takyiwa-Mensah underscored that the conference’s targeted audience were Fortune 1000 companies, black wall street, Ghanaians and Nigerians in the diaspora and high net worth individuals.
“This is a conference that we expect to gain real results within the next 18-24months. Upon the execution of the event, we will follow up with a trade visit with US delegates to Ghana and Nigeria in 2023,” she added.
The Director of Investor Services Division at GIPC, Edward Ashong-Lartey, who said the GIPC and the GNPC had been together since 2014 executing trade assignments, indicated that the USA was chosen for the trade mission because outside of the country and Nigeria, the US was the third most active country in which enquiries were made about investments in the two countries.
“We are going to Atlanta that has the third largest Diasporan population and following the April roadshow there has been a lot of interest so we find this GNBC proposal very welcoming. And we will take the advantage to follow up on the initial leads and reach out to a larger audience,” he said.
“It is going to be the hybrid form so if you cannot travel to Atlanta you can join them online. So we are providing the platform to encourage more of our people to reach out to Diasporas in Atlanta,” he added.
BY ABIGAIL ARTHUR
