Ghana Open For Business – Veep

Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia has called on foreign investors to take advantage of the conducive business environment in Ghana and invest in the country.

He was speaking recently at a high-level dialogue on opportunities for ambitious reforms of the business environment in Ghana with the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, in Washington.

The session was aimed at helping participants better understand government's reform priorities and to share some of the World Bank Group's global expertise and best practices in this area.

The Vice President led the dialogue on behalf of the Ghanaian government.

“Ghana is open for business. Something very exciting is happening in Ghana today,” said Bawumia at the end of the meeting.

“We have set the task of becoming the most business friendly economy in Africa.”

The session highlighted opportunities to leverage information and communications technologies to enhance the business environment in Ghana.

Ethiopis Tafara, IFC Vice-President and General Counsel, said, “New governments with fresh mandates often have a window of opportunity for reform, so the time is ripe to implement immediate and long-term reforms that can improve the business environment in Ghana and attract new investment.”

Tafara also expressed confidence in the government's commitment, emphasizing that IFC is ready to support Ghana's reform efforts through investments, mobilize capital from other investors and provide advice when needed.

Ghana was ranked among the top 10 Doing Business global reformers in 2007 and 2008, and is again signaling that it wants drive higher growth with private investment.

In the 2017 Doing Business report, Ghana rated 108th out of 190 economies in ease of doing business.

The World Bank Group supports Ghana through a large number of engagements.

IFC is investing in Ghana across a range of sectors, from the energy value chain, to banking and education.

In 2016, IFC arranged a $667 million financing package to increase the container capacity of the port of Tema.

The World Bank Group's Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice has been supporting business reform programmes in close to 40 countries in Africa, including Ghana, helping to build the capacity of reform-minded governments.

A business desk report