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GIPC to continue to drive domestic, foreign investments – Yofi Grant

Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) says it is determined to play a crucial role in supporting the government’s efforts in developing both domestic and foreign investments.

This it said would be done through innovative and aggressive investment attraction strategies as well as to support the economic recovery processes.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GIPC, Yofi Grant disclosed this at a press conference in Accra on Friday to present the centre’s half year Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) report.

He said FDI have begun to bounce back resulting in an increase in inflows for the first half of the year despite the slow start and  decline in  investments  experienced  due  to measures taken to contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This, he said, had resulted in a total FDI value of $785.62 million between January to June this year with the country recording total investments of $869.47 million within the period.

He explained that in spite of the achievements, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had predicted a decline in FDI from five to 10 per cent in 2021 with a slow recovery to be initiated in 2022 driven by restructuring of global value chains and a general rebound of the global economy.

“In this regard, the GIPC remains cautiously optimistic about the flow of FDI to Ghana, as we move forward, that notwithstanding, the centre would continue to assiduously pursue worthwhile investments for economic development as well as support the government initiatives such as the COVID-19Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises Support (CARES) Programme to help bolster the economy towards a recovery and remain resilient pre and post pandemic,” Mr Grant assured.

According to him, the Centre recorded a total of 69 projects with a total estimated value of $688.74 million by the end of June 2020.

Out of this, Mr Grant indicated that the total FDI component amounted to $627.52 million while local component accounted for an estimated $61.22 million.

“The FDI value of US$627.52 million is a considerable increase of about 409.10 per cent from last year’s FDI value of US$123.26 million recorded within the same period (January-June 2019), depicting a strong performance irrespective of the global pandemic,” he  stated.

 Mr Grant  noted that  the  services  sector registered  the most number of 25 projects out of the  total projects  recorded  by  GIPC with  manufacturing and export trade sectors having 21 and 11 projects respectively.

 He mentioned that the project cuts across six regions namely, Greater Accra, Central, Eastern, Ashanti and Volta regions with most projects registered in the Greater Accra enclave and significant contributions to job creation were expected out of the projects adding that it was estimated that a total of 14,614 jobs would be created when they become fully operational.

The CEO of GIPC hinted that 14,052 of the jobs would be reserved for Ghanaians while the remainder of 562 jobs would be for foreigners.

BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU AND PHILOMINA OPPONG

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