Ghana: Kenya Trade Expo held in Accra

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has averagely registered foreign direct Investment of $ 4.3 billion per year over the last five years.

This has come as a result of a renewed approach towards a more focused investment drive initiated by the centre to promote specific priority investment projects which made it easy for investors to make the investment decision.

Mr Alex Twumasi, Senior Investment Officer of GIPC who announced this at the opening of the maiden Kenya Trade Expo in Accra, said the centre had also recorded 22 investment projects from Kenya with an investment value of $193 million from 1994 to June 2015.

Exploring opportunities
The three-day expo which had the theme: “The Role of Pan-African Investments in Ghana’s Growth,” was aimed at creating a platform for Ghanaian and Kenyan businesses to explore partnership opportunities.

The expo brought together both Kenyan and Ghanaian businessmen and traders who exhibited their products with the aim of deepening the existing investment and trade ties between the two countries.

African markets
The Senior Investment Officer said connecting Africa’s markets and investing in the entire value chain across sectors would be the key driver for the region in boosting intra-African trade since data from the Africa Competitiveness Report 2015, suggested that to date, only 11.3 per cent of trade in Africa was intra-regional.

He also said according to the report, total exports of African countries were heavily skewed towards the export of raw minerals and that Africa’s population of over one billion people represented a large emerging consumer market and labour force that provided significant growth opportunities.

Source: Graphic Online

Publication date: Mon 9 Nov 2015