- Ghana Removes Capital Barriers as GIPC Courts British Investors
Ghana is overhauling its investment architecture to remove entry barriers, deepen investor protection and position the country as a preferred destination for British and global capital, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Simon Madjie, has said.
Speaking at the Ghana-UK Investment Summit in London, Mr Madjie said Ghana’s investment strategy is now focused on dismantling operational bottlenecks, improving legal certainty and presenting bankable opportunities across high-growth sectors of the economy.
According to him, Ghana is seeking to strengthen long-term strategic partnerships with the United Kingdom, building on bilateral trade of £1.6 billion in 2025 and cumulative foreign direct investment of more than £6.85 billion since 1994.
“There are about 2.6 million businesses registered in our country. Now, these are formal businesses. But because we are an entrepreneurial country, the average Ghanaian you meet is a businessperson waiting for partnerships with you. And we are looking for partnerships that will propel our economy and deliver value for you,” Mr Madjie said.
The GIPC CEO said Ghana’s investment proposition is being driven by strong demographic and market fundamentals.
He noted that while Ghana’s land size of about 238,000 square kilometres is comparable to the United Kingdom’s 244,000 square kilometres, Ghana’s population is projected to grow from 34 million to 50 million by 2050, creating a significant expansion in domestic consumer demand.
That growth, he said, positions Ghana not only as a domestic market, but also as a platform for companies seeking access to the wider regional market under the Economic Community of West African States and the African Continental Free Trade Area.
A central plank of the new investment framework is the removal of minimum capital requirements for foreign enterprises, a reform intended to lower market entry barriers and make Ghana more accessible to international investors.
“The President and Minister for Trade have spoken about the removal of the minimum capital requirement. That’s not all. We also have citizenship by investment provisions in our new investment law, so you can invest and, subject to certain rules and regulations, acquire citizenship through that,” Mr Madjie said.
He added that the new investment law will also strengthen the investor grievance mechanism while placing clear obligations on investors.
“We’ve improved on our investor grievance… But this new investment law also places obligations on investors, an obligation to obey human rights, to protect the environment, and to live by our labor standards as well,” he said.
The revised legal framework also increases operational flexibility for foreign firms by moving automatic investment quotas for foreign employees from four to as many as twelve designated slots.
Mr Madjie said Ghana’s active Bilateral Investment Treaty with the UK provides further assurance to investors by guaranteeing national treatment, most-favoured-nation status and structured protection against political risk.
The treaty framework, he noted, includes safeguards on expropriation, compensation and subrogation, while a Double Taxation Agreement ensures that corporate earnings are not taxed twice between the two jurisdictions.
Beyond the legal reforms, the GIPC CEO said Ghana is targeting frontier sectors including fintech, artificial intelligence, digital assets, climate finance, clean energy, regulated medical cannabis, industrial hemp, pharmaceuticals, agro-processing and critical minerals.
He said Ghana has enacted its first digital assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers law, creating a legal framework for blockchain operations, digital payments and cryptocurrency platforms.
The country’s fintech ecosystem, he said, is valued at nearly $50 billion, supported by 26 million active electronic money customers and close to one million registered mobile money agents.
Ghana is also positioning itself in the carbon markets space, with an active carbon registry and verified protocols under Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement. According to Mr Madjie, the framework could help mobilise up to $1.1 billion in international climate financing by 2030.
The country’s energy transition plan, targeted for 2070, is expected to trigger $562 billion in cumulative investments and create 1.4 million green jobs across solar, wind, hydro and lithium processing value chains.
As part of the clean energy rollout, Ghana plans to establish 1,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2028, ahead of deeper electric vehicle penetration by 2045.
Mr Madjie also highlighted opportunities in regulated medical cannabis and industrial hemp processing, presenting the sector as an export-oriented opportunity for pharmaceuticals, agro-processing, textiles, garments, automotive components, machinery and engineering.
“It’s an $82 billion economy, and Ghana has fertile lands for it. We are not saying it’s for domestic consumption. It’s for medical uses. As well as industrial and value addition opportunities, in agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, the automotive, textiles, garments, machinery, engineering, and food processing,” he said.
The GIPC CEO said the investment reforms are aligned with government’s broader “New Economy” agenda, under which 1 per cent of national GDP is to be allocated to commercial farming, critical mineral processing and domestic manufacturing.
A key industrial objective, he added, is for Ghana to process 50 per cent of locally cultivated cocoa beans onshore, ensuring finished exports can meet rules-of-origin requirements under the African Continental Free Trade Area and access zero-tariff markets across the continent.
The value-addition push also targets the $640 million domestic shea butter industry and Ghana’s pharmaceutical sector, which comprises 38 manufacturing companies exporting to 12 countries.
Mr Madjie said Ghana is seeking external capital to scale up active pharmaceutical ingredients, consumables and commercialised herbal preparations within the country’s $600 million pharmaceutical market.
The investment pitch also covered major infrastructure opportunities, including a proposed $60 billion downstream petroleum hub on 20,000 acres of dedicated land, designed to host manufacturing plants, refining facilities and specialised shipping jetties for sub-regional exports.
Ghana’s wider transport infrastructure needs are estimated at $272 billion, with the government initiating an immediate $10 billion “Big Push” road allocation over the next five years.
The GIPC CEO also referenced a 200-megawatt solar power generation project backed by the Ghana Infrastructure Fund with a $150 million financing ticket.
For investors, the message from Ghana’s investment promotion agency is clear: the country wants to move beyond policy announcements to structured, legally protected and commercially viable investment opportunities.
Removing capital requirements may open the door, but investors will still look for regulatory consistency, faster approvals, infrastructure reliability, contract enforcement, tax predictability and political commitment to protect long-term capital.
For Ghana, the opportunity is significant. If the reforms are implemented with discipline, the country could convert demographic growth, regional market access and legal reforms into a stronger investment pipeline. The test now is whether the new investment code can turn Ghana’s London pitch into factories, jobs, exports, technology transfer and long-term capital inflows.
