Ghana woos Arab investors… Into oil industry

On his recent trip to Libya, Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni managed to get the attention of some oil-rich nations. This was when he had the opportunity to address them at the 13th Ordinary Session of standing commission for Afro-Arab Cooperation, which was held on the 10th and 11th October, this year.

In an interview with the paper, Alhaji Mumuni said he took the opportunity to sell the country, and urged investors into Ghana's oil industry and to channel their resources into the newly discovered oil industry. According to him, there are more investment opportunities available in the country.

After presenting them with the opportunity, Alhaji Mumuni said he got the indication that many of these would-be investors are committed to providing capacity training through scholarship in Petrol-chemical courses, which is aimed at opening up the oil and gas industry to the international market.

According to Alhaji Mumuni, they also showed interest in the country's infrastructure, railways, agro-business and the tourism industry. “The Arab world's investment to Africa has not been enough over the past years, and as such Africa's biggest sector, which is agriculture, has witnessed a decline in production”, he said.

For this reason, he said “it is about time new areas of investments are exploited to attract investment into Africa from the Arab world, which has been well received.”

Deliberations at the main event of the Commission centered primarily on a report on the activities of the African Union Commission (AUC) and General Secretariat of the League of Arab States (LAS) on Afro-Arab Cooperation since 2001.

The thrust of the intervention was the strategic importance and desirability of renewing and deepening Afro-Arab Cooperation and solidarity.

Alhaji Mumuni also spoke about the thorny issue of climate change which has become a major concern the world over.

As a threat to human security, he called for an advocate position in the run up to the Climate Change Summit, which is slated for December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

He noted that equity and justice loomed largely in the climate change debate, as countries least responsible for the problem bore disproportionately the brunt of its effect.

He thus called on developed countries to lend ears to the voices of Africa, whiles providing adequate compensation packages to address the issue of adaptation and mitigation, adding that “At this material time, when Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and remittances from residence were dwindling as a result of global economic and financial downturn”.