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Invest Africa Holds Roundtable Discussion On Ghana In London

By Sandow S Kpebu
Diaspora (UK & Ireland) Invest Africa Holds Roundtable Discussion On Ghana In London
JUN 29, 2014 LISTEN

H.E. Victor Smith, Ghana's High Commissioner to the UK and Northern Ireland and a team of officers from Ghana's Mission in London joined other African businesses and corporate leaders at a discussion in South East London today.

The roundtable discussion was to receive the Ernst & Young attractiveness survey for 2014 which focused on Ghana.

Presented by Michael Lalor of Ernst & Young, the report revealed that whilst foreign direct investment to North Africa had stagnated due to political insecurity; FDI to sub Saharan Africa had grown. The report also revealed that Ghana was amongst the first three most favourable destinations in intra

Africa investment
He said the research found that the new trend of cross country investment within Africa was also growing, meaning that 'Africa itself is investing within itself'. He mentioned countries such as Nigeria and South Africa as some of the African countries investing heavily in Ghana. Mr. Lalor said UK companies remained the biggest in Africa with most of the established companies continually expanding their footprint.

He stressed that new investment into Africa had come especially from the Diaspora noting that the perception that Africa was losing out on FDI's, stemmed from corruption, geopolitical and security risks.

The Ernst & Young's attractiveness survey Africa 2014 is a recognised key source of insight on foreign direct investment as it examines the attractiveness of a particular region or country as an investment destination. It is designed to help businesses to make investment decisions and to assist governments to remove barriers for future growth.

The Ghana High Commissioner, H.E. Victor Emmanuel Smith contributing to the discussion said government of Ghana will soon be holding a mid-term review of the macro-economic situation in Ghana and was sure that the review result would further boost investor confidence in Ghana. He added that African economies needed to look back to the basics by strengthening infrastructure and the manufacturing sectors in order to help sustain long term investment.

He assured the panelists that the government of Ghana would continue to work towards 'creating the necessary environment for the investor to feel comfortable to put their money in Ghana'; adding that 'Ghana's strength includes its enviable democratic credential and security'. HE Victor Smith cited population as a variable that needed to be controlled in order to help address Ghana's macro-economic issues since population explosion would normally have an adverse impact on the macro-economic environment.

The High Commissioner thanked Ernst & Young and Invest Africa for their work and said Ghana would continue to encourage investors to spread their business across the 10 regions of Ghana in order to help stem the rural/urban migration challenge currently facing Ghana.

The event which was organised under the auspice of Invest Africa was chaired by Manji Cheto of Teneo Intelligence.

Source: Information & Public Affairs Bureau Ghana High Commission, London

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AFRICA ATTRACTIVENESS SURVEYAFRICA ATTRACTIVENESS SURVEY

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