Ghana’s attractiveness as an investment destination has proved resilient amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with the country raking in UD$874.million worth of investments from 122 projects in the first half of 2021.
Of the total investment, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) component amounted to US$829.29 million while the local component accounted for US$44.72 million. This represents an increase of 32.15% over the FDI value of US$627.52 million recorded in the first half of 2020. The 122 projects consisted of 94 new projects and 28 existing ones.
According to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre’s (GIPC) investment report for the first quarter of 2021, out of the 122 projects registered, the services sector, with 63 projects, recorded the highest number of projects. It was followed by manufacturing with 24 projects. General Trading and Building and Construction followed with 18 and 6 projects respectively. The oil & gas sector as well as export trade sectors recorded 5 projects each. The agriculture sector also recorded a project.
In terms of the FDI values, the services sector recorded the largest value of US$597.63 million. This was followed by the manufacturing sector with FDI value of US$98.74 million. The General trading as well as building/construction sectors recorded FDI values of US$41.87 million and US$22.63 million respectively.
In terms of regional distribution of the projects registered, nine regions directly benefited from the 122 projects. 96 projects, representing 78.69% of the projects registered are in the Greater Accra region. The other regions are the Ashanti and Western regions with 8 and 9 projects respectively, Bono, Central and Eastern regions with two projects each and Ahafo, Northern and Upper West with a project each
The report also stated that the total initial capital transfers recorded for the first half of 2021 also amounted to US$47.76 million. The investments recorded by the Centre in the first half of 2021 have prospects of generating a minimum of 8,931 jobs. 8,091 (90.59%) of these jobs would be for Ghanaians whilst the remaining 840 (9.41%) will be for non-Ghanaians per GIPC records.
The expected jobs to be created for Ghanaians from registered projects in the first half of 2021 gives a significant increase of 355.57% over the 1,776 expected jobs to be created for Ghanaians in the first half of 2020. There was also a total of 27 wholly Ghanaian owned projects registered for the first half of 2021 with investment amount of US$669.64 million.
Even though, the World Investment Report 2021, says prospects are highly uncertain and will depend on, among other factors, the pace of economic recovery and the possibility of pandemic relapses, the potential impact on FDI of recovery spending packages, and policy pressures (WIR, 2021), GIPC is optimistic and is expecting results recorded in the first half of 2021 to increase by the end of the third quarter of the year to impact the US$3 billion target for the year and to also support efforts geared towards the Ghana CARES programme.
We aim to deliver this as we continue to closely work with the private sector to actively follow up on actions emanating from new and existing investment related engagements embarked upon such as the GIPC Cocoa Value Chain Investment Meeting, Interagency Dialogues, Economic Counsellors Dialogue, CEOs Quarterly Breakfast Meetings, the maiden Ghana Diaspora Investment Summit (GDIS) as well as the upcoming Regional Sensitization Tour (RST) and many more,” said Yofi Grant, CEO – GIPC in the report.
Read also: Ghana’s FDI increases by 140%(
We are enthusiastic about realizing the needed capital and investments to support the Coronavirus Alleviation & Revitalisation of Enterprises Support (CAREs) programme – the key to bouncing back post-COVID” Yofi Grant stressed.
FDI flows on the African continent were forecasted to contract between 25% and 40% based on gross domestic product (GDP) growth projections as well as a range of investment specific factors according to the World Investment Report 2020. Contrary to the projections, Africa saw only a 16% decline in FDI flows to US$40 billion in 2020 – a level last seen 15 years ago, according to the World Investment Report 2021.
[…] Read also: Ghana records high investment inflows in Q1 despite Covid […]