For foreign investors willing to invest in Ghana’s manufacturing sector, some juicy incentives have been made available by the Ghanaian government.
The incentives offered foreign investors by government, is to facilitate investments from foreign investors to support government’s industrialization agenda and ultimately fueling its vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.
Also, it is to help bring into fruition, plans by government in the medium to long term make Ghana a manufacturing hub on the continent on the back of the commencement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as well as the recently launched Ghs 100 billion Ghana CARES programme aimed at raising some Ghs 70 billion from the private sector to revitalize the economy after being heavily hit by the Covid pandemic.
These are according to the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yoofi Grant, in a webinar co-organised by GIPC, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Dubai Investment Industries (DI).
The webinar was held to help foreign investors and businesses particularly those from the UAE, understand the numerous investment, business and partnership opportunities in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors of Ghana as well as the potential synergies that could be developed with companies in Ghana’s health care sector post Covid-19.
“Government’s new policy direction is a move away from the exports of raw materials to value addition and government is seeking to partner with the private sector to add value to produce in-situ. We now want to add value and create a much more refining and rewarding industrial and manufacturing sector. Ghana is repositioning itself as an industrial hub,” he asserted.
Incentives offered foreign investors by government as highlighted by Mr Grant during the webinar include; Tax holidays, concessionary tax rates, duty exemptions on plants and equipment for manufacturing activities, capital allowances, protection of investors against expropriation of capital and investments, full repatriation of dividends and net profit attributed to investors, transfer of funds for foreign loans servicing, permissible remittance of gold, release from double taxation for foreigners and employees where applicable, 100 percent exemption from both direct and indirect tax payments on all imports and exports of production for companies in free zone areas in the country among others.
“So with these, I believe Ghana has attractively positioned itself for partnership with foreign investors, particularly those from the UAE,” he added.
Speaking also during the webinar, was Mr Sreekumar Brahmanandan, Director of Operations at Dubai Investment Industries (DI) who stated that the UAE and Dubai in particular, is willing to collaborate with the GIPC to facilitate more investments into Ghana’s health and manufacturing sectors.
In terms of the capital required for a foreign investor to partner a local company or entirely set up a business in the country, Mr Grant intimated that a foreign investor would have to make a capital commitment of $200,000 either in cash or capital goods in a joint venture or $500,000 for a wholly-owned foreign company in the country.
The manufacturing sub sector in 2018 contributed about one-third (GH₵45.0 billion) of the total revenue in the industry sector.
The subsector represents about 95.7 percent of establishments in the Industry sector, numbering about 106,330 establishments and employing about 734,341 workers.
Large scale, medium scale and small scale businesses in the country’s manufacturing sub sector form 30.2 percent, 12.6 percent and 18.9 percent respectively.
