- FDI Rebounds to US$2.62bn as Focus Shifts to Jobs, Exports and Local Value
Ghana attracted US$2.62 billion in foreign direct investment in 2025, marking a sharp rebound from the previous year and shifting the policy debate from whether foreign capital is returning to how much employment, exports, technology transfer and domestic value the investment ultimately creates.
The 2025 Annual Investment Report shows that the country registered 254 projects expected to generate 18,748 jobs when fully operational, with 16,928 — about 90.3% — projected to go to Ghanaians.
The figures represent a significant reversal after FDI declined to about US$617.61 million in 2024, following US$649.58 million in 2023. The rebound therefore restores investment flows closer to levels seen before Ghana’s recent period of debt distress, currency instability and elevated financing costs.
President John Dramani Mahama has cited the recovery as evidence that investor confidence is improving.
Speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony for the US$1.3 billion Sentuo Airport Garden City project in Accra, the President said foreign investment had risen from roughly US$640 million in 2024 to about US$2.5 billion in 2025, attributing the improvement to what his administration considers a more stable macroeconomic and business environment.
The official coordinated investment report puts the final figure slightly higher at US$2.62 billion, reflecting a broader dataset compiled with input from the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority, Bank of Ghana, Petroleum Commission and Ghana Free Zones Authority.
The 2025 report expanded the coverage of investment activity and therefore provides a broader measure than earlier datasets. The rebound is substantial, but it should not automatically be read as a like-for-like fourfold increase in identical categories of capital inflows.
The more important policy question is what the new investment is financing. Foreign direct investment differs from short-term portfolio flows because it can establish factories, infrastructure, technology platforms and service businesses while creating supply chains and long-term productive capacity. But the economic multiplier varies considerably depending on where the capital goes and how deeply foreign investors integrate with domestic firms.
Manufacturing has emerged as one of the sectors attracting increased investor interest, alongside energy, technology, mining services and other activities. Provisional investment data earlier this year showed significant inflows associated with new projects and existing businesses, with China among the most active countries by number of projects.
For Ghana, that composition may ultimately matter more than the headline number.
An investment that establishes a factory, sources materials locally, trains Ghanaian workers and exports finished goods can generate a broader domestic impact than capital concentrated in an activity with limited local procurement and high import dependence.
The challenge is therefore moving from attracting foreign capital to retaining more of its economic value.
President Mahama has increasingly stressed that point. At the Sentuo Airport Garden City ceremony, he said Ghanaian engineers, architects, artisans, technicians, suppliers and other local businesses should receive meaningful opportunities where they have the competence to participate.
He also argued that the true value of large investments should be measured by the businesses they help create, the skills they transfer and the jobs they sustain rather than simply by the physical scale of the projects.
That approach reflects a long-standing weakness in Ghana’s investment model.
The country has attracted major foreign projects over several decades, but converting those inflows into sustained productivity growth, export diversification and stronger domestic industrial capacity has been more difficult.
Foreign investors considering Ghana still have to assess electricity reliability and cost, access to foreign exchange, transport infrastructure, port efficiency, taxation, regulatory predictability, skills availability and the cost of financing.
Those issues become particularly important for manufacturing.
A company may be attracted by Ghana’s political stability or market access, but a factory must still obtain reliable power, import machinery, move raw materials efficiently and export finished products at internationally competitive costs.
Ghana’s location within the African Continental Free Trade Area gives the country a potentially important advantage.
Investors establishing production in Ghana could use the country as a base for serving a continental market of more than 1.4 billion people, an opportunity the government has also highlighted in its push to establish Ghana as a regional manufacturing hub.
But market access alone will not guarantee investment success. The competitiveness of Ghana as an AfCFTA production base will depend on logistics, electricity, customs efficiency, industrial infrastructure and the predictability of the regulatory environment.
Foreign investment can broaden the corporate tax base, create employment and reduce pressure on government to finance major commercial projects directly. But excessive tax concessions can dilute those fiscal benefits, while unpredictable taxes can undermine investment decisions.
The government has positioned investment as a central part of its transition from stabilisation towards growth, including a separate US$10 billion “New Economy” investment programme targeting priority sectors over four years.
The rebound in FDI gives Ghana additional momentum, but sustaining it will require more than improved macroeconomic indicators.
Investors will need to see Ghana as a competitive location for long-term production, not merely a destination for capital seeking returns.
For policymakers, the measure of success will therefore be whether foreign capital leaves behind deeper industrial capacity, stronger Ghanaian suppliers, export revenues, technology and durable employment.
But Ghana’s investment recovery will ultimately be judged not by how many dollars enter the economy, but by how much productive value remains after those dollars have been deployed.
