The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) is intensifying efforts to achieve its set target of US$3 billion worth of foreign direct investments for this year.

According to the GIPC’s CEO, Yofi Grant, this will be done through partnerships with the country’s private sector.

Ghana was ranked third in the whole of Africa with an FDI inflow of US$2.65 billion in 2020, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. With this achievement, Mr. Grant has expressed confidence in the investor market to help his outfit reach this year’s FDI target.

He spoke during the GIPC’s second-quarter CEOs’ Breakfast Meeting under the theme, ‘Understanding Ghana’s Taxes and Exemptions Regime Towards Increasing Investor Confidence in the Business Environment’.

“With all the tax exemptions and amendments that have been put in place, especially during this era of global difficulty, Ghana has increased investor confidence in the business environment. And I am pleased to say that in 2020, total FDI into Ghana was in the region of $2.65 billion. It was the third-largest in Africa, after Egypt and Nigeria,” he explained.

“This is very commendable because, during the pandemic, the UNDP and UNCTAD predicted global FDI flows would shrink by 42%. And of course, Africa would have been the worst hit in that regard. So it’s interesting that despite the pandemic, Ghana was still able to maintain attractiveness. And I believe the fact that we engage with the private sector is one of the reasons why there’s still confidence in the market.”

Ghana has seen a surge in Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) inflows, recording an impressive 2.6 billion dollars’ worth of inbound investments last year. The trend defied the anticipated steep decline in FDI inflows, as a second wave of COVID 19 infections threatened to cripple the Ghanaian economy.

While Ghana had initially witnessed a plateau in FDI inflows during the first wave of infections and its ensuing lockdowns, investments saw a rebound on the back of government policy responses to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on businesses.

Total investment inflows thus peaked to US$2,796.49 billion in 2020, with a total FDI value of US$2,650.97 billion for Ghana.

The FDI value of US$2,650.97 billion illustrates a significant increase of 139.06% over the FDI value of US$1,108.93 billion recorded in 2019.