Yield-hunters descend on Accra

Investors will gather in Accra from February 7-8, 2012 to hear why Ghana provides an alternative attraction for global capital and foreign direct investment (FDI) amid a developed world of uncertainty and sluggish growth.

A joint collaboration between the Ministry of Finance and Euro-money Conferences -- a world-leading organiser of conferences for cross-border investment and trade exchanges -- the event will highlight Ghana's attractions as an FDI destination to 250 invited guests, comprising venture capitalists, fund managers and development financiers.

The conference will cover several key investment areas -- banking, capital markets, oil and gas, SMEs, infrastructure and PPPs, mining, soft commodities and agribusiness -- under the banner, Ghana: Where Growth and Stability Meet.

“This is the opportune time for investors to come to Ghana. Our economy is doing well; it's being touted as one of the fastest-growing economies, and it is strong and resilient. We have made a lot of efforts to diversify and modernise it; above all, we are a stable country where the rule of law, transparency and good governance are held sacred,” Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffuor said ahead of the event.

With the economy pacing at double-digit speed, the fastest in Africa, and reforms beginning to pay dividends to fiscal management, FDI inflows have picked up considerably and a tidy portion of capital that has been fleeing developed countries has found its way into high-yielding Treasuries in Ghana.

In 2011, foreign direct investors registered projects valued at US$6.82billion and transferred initial capital of US$213.29million into the economy, thrice the amount in 2010. The projects were expected to create 46,761 jobs.

“Currently, our focus is on developing our oil and gas industry and to bridge the huge infrastructural gap -- roads, rails, energy, ICT, health facilities, etc.

The World Bank estimates that we need about US$2.5billion annually for the next four to five years to bridge this gap. I hope that participants will find our economy attractive enough to invest in some of these areas,” Duffuor said.

Ghana's vast hydrocarbon potential is helping to leverage substantial credit lines to fix infrastructure weaknesses and industrialise parts of the country which over the years have been consigned to feeding export markets with low-earning raw materials.

The finer details of the US$3billion China Development Bank loan are being finalised in Parliament, with the initial proceeds earmarked for rail, gas and irrigation investments.

In recent years, global debt-security investors have poured resources into bonds issued by the government to pay state-owned enterprise debts and revitalise moribund infrastructure projects.

Duffour announced last year that Ghana will sell seven- and 10-year fixed rate bonds in 2012 to create a new benchmark for the domestic debt-market and diversify the sources of long-term capital for infrastructure investment.

In a few years, the country is expected to lose its eligibility for concessional finance from the World Bank, which has been its most important creditor for the past three decades.

“Euro-money's Ghana Finance and Investment Conference is a clear demonstration that Ghana is taking the need to revitalise its finance and investment environment very seriously,” said Christopher Garnett, Director of Euromoney Conferences.

“Although parts of the region exist in a state of some turmoil, this is not true of Ghana and I can think of no better time for us to be here.”

Mark Mobius, an emerging market investment guru who heads Templeton Emerging Markets Group, Franklin Templeton Investments; Lawrence Spiedell, Chief Investment Officer, Frontier Market Asset Management; and Nana Appiah-Korang, Director, Emerging Capital Partners are among speakers expected at the conference.

There will also be presentations by representatives of the African Development Bank, Africa Finance Corporation, Africa Export-Import Bank, China-Africa Development Fund, and the German Investment Corporation (DEG).