A Strategy For Attracting Investment Into Brong Ahafo Region

The Writer

INTRODUCTION TO BRONG AHAFO REGION
Brong ahafo region, the second largest region in Ghana by land mass is home to over 2.3 million people (Ghana Census Report, 2010) is divided into 27 districts. The main occupation of most of the residents is farming. The Techiman market attracts traders from all parts of West Africa. The biggest private employers in the region are Ghana Nuts Ltd (agro processing) and Newmont Ghana Ltd (gold mining).

The Brong Ahafo largest settlements in terms of population are Sunyani (Regional capital) and Techiman (commercial hub). The districts in the eastern part of the Region (Kintampo North and South, Pru East and West, Atebubu Amanten, Sene West and East, Nkoranza North and South) have poor road network, poor access to banking and telecommunication services due to years of neglect and long distance from the regional capital.

The cocoa growing areas in the western part of the region (Sunyani East and West, Berekum, Dormaa, Wenchi, Tain, Asunafo, Asutifi, etc) are relatively developed due to presence of good schools, good road network, and short distance to regional capital. The sharp difference in development between the eastern and western parts of the region is mainly due to poor planning. There is very little difference between these two areas of the region in terms of natural resource endowments.

The region has over 75 SHS, majority of the very good ones are found in the western areas. The three universities in the region (Catholic University College, University of Energy and Natural Resource and Sunyani Techincal University), and the over five university campuses have created the human capacity needed for region’s development.

The over 50 radio stations and one newspaper( The Techiman Times) have made it easy to disseminate information and knowledge across the 27 districts. Even though all the 27 districts have access to financial services, the major banks in Ghana have branches in Sunyani and Techiman.

FLOW OF INVESTMENT INTO BRONG AHAFO REGION
The region has huge investment opportunities in commercial farming, agro processing, mining, water, tourism and hospitality, tiles and ceramics, timber and forestry resources, warehousing and storage, housing, education and transportation. These opportunities result from natural endowments, educational resources, strategic geographical location and infrastructural development.

Despite these huge opportunities, the regions performance in attracting investment is very poor. The region performs only better than Upper West and Upper East Regions, which have the least populations and investment opportunities in Ghana. Analysis of the data sourced from Ghana Investment Promotion Authority(GIPA) reveal that the region attracted only 36 projects between 1994 and 2010, an average of two projects per year over a 17-year period. The region has been identified as one of the four regions in Ghana with less than one percent of investment projects. In fact, the region did not attract any investments in 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2006.

WHY IS THE REGION ATTRACTING FEW INVESTMENT PROJECTS?

Why should a region with such huge investment opportunities attract few investment projects? What can be done to make the region attractive to both local and foreign investors? The region’s inability to attract investments could be attributed to the fact that Greater Accra region attracts large share of investment projects. The analysis of the Ghana Investment data show that Greater Accra Region alone attracts about 80% of all Foreign Direct Investment that come into Ghana every year since the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) Act(Act 478) came into force in 1994.

The research done by this author have revealed that the actual causes of the regions poor performance in attracting investment projects are(i) lack of information from the region to the GIPA on investment opportunities, thereby making it difficult for investors to plan, (ii) the local governments lack of capacity to collect, organize, store and disseminate investment information, (iii) Regional Administrations have failed to develop marketing strategy to promote and attract investment. There can’t be any good marketing strategy without credible information. Fundamentally, the most significant cause of the problem is lack of information. This lack of information has deepened the investment community’s lack of knowledge about the regions potentials.

STRATEGIES FOR ATTRACTING INVESTMENT
The region needs a 5-year investment promotion plan. The goal of the plan should be to make the region the third most preferred destination of investment after Greater Accra and Western regions. The plan should position the region as the number one investment destination for commercial farming, agro processing, tiles and ceramics, water, timber and forestry and light manufacturing.

The key strategies of the plan should include the following:

Firstly, the regional administration must create investment promotion offices at all 27 districts. The offices must be resourced to collect, store and disseminate information to investors. The offices must be managed by competent people who will have deep knowledge of investment promotion. The managers will be to also advise investors who come into the district.

Secondly, regional investment office must be created to coordinate the work of the district investment offices. The manager of the regional office will be work with the GIPA to organize investment promotion events in all 27 district capitals, regional capital, national capital and global cities.

Thirdly, a website should be created as a tool for investment promotion. The website will contain investment information, district information and any relevant information. The website must be portal of brong ahafo region investment and business.

Fourthly, an investment promotion campaigned should be designed and waged in national and international media to create awareness about the regions potentials. The very famous people from the region(e.g. Asamoah Djan, Coach Akwesi Appiah, Akosuah Busia, Guru, etc) could be contracted to help create TV and Radio commercials for this purpose. The region’s 29 members of parliament must be actively involved in this campaign. The media promotion must emphasize the region’s strategic location and infrastructural development.

Lastly, regional administration must work with the traditional authorities to create industrial parks in all 27 districts. These industrial parks can be used to host the NPP governments “one district, one factory” investment projects and other light industrial projects.

CONCLUSION
The Brong Ahafo Region could become the hub of industrialization in Ghana if the recommendations given are implemented by the regional administrators. The regions citizens must benefit from its many endowments. The realization of the development goals of the regions will demand effective implementation of holistic development plan. The investments promotion strategy outlined in this article should be a very critical component of this holistic development plan.

About the Author
The author is a lecturer at the catholic University college of Ghana and the publisher of The Techiman Times Newspaper and www.techimantimes.com website. He is also an Enterprise Development Consultant. He holds degrees in economics from KNUST and University of Lugano, Switzerland.

Email: [email protected]