President assures investors of safety
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured private sector investors that Ghana was a safe destination for their investments, as government’s push is making the country a business-friendly one on the Continent.
“Ghana is endowed with great potential, where security and the rule of law are upheld, where investments are secure,” he said on Monday at the 6th Africa CEO Forum, held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
The Forum, a strategic corporate networking platform dedicated to the private sector and business leaders in Africa, brings together, annually, influential African and international Chief Executives Officers (CEOs), bankers and investors for thought provoking discussions on the issues affecting Africa’s economic development.
President Akufo-Addo told the Forum that his administration over the last fourteen months, had focused its energies on building a resilient economy, and instituting measures aimed at helping move Ghana to a situation beyond aid.
“We have put in place, in Ghana, since I took office, a monetary policy that has stabilised our currency, and has reduced significantly inflation and the cost of borrowing.
“We have implemented a raft of tax cuts which has brought relief to businesses, and, at the same time, reduced substantially our fiscal deficit.
“These interventions are lowering the cost of doing business, and are shifting the focus of our economy from an emphasis on taxation to an expansion of production,” he stressed.
The President stated that the Ghanaian economy, had grown by 7.9 percent in 2017, from a figure of 3.6 percent in 2016, and is expected to grow, in 2018, by 8.3 percent, which, according to the IMF, would make it the fastest growing economy in the world this year.
In order to create a Ghana that is “able to mobilise our own material and human resources to develop a strong economy, capable of generating prosperity for the mass of our people, and construct a Ghana no longer dependent on handouts and charity”, the President stated that the rapid growth of the private sector was an essential ingredient in realising his government’s vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.
“There are many projects in roads, railways, water transport, industry, manufacturing, agriculture, petroleum and gas, renewable energy, the exploitation of our mineral wealth of bauxite, iron ore and gold, and ICT, amongst others, which, if properly structured, can attract private sector financing,” he said.
“The Key to attracting private sector investment is not only creating a conducive, business friendly and peaceful environment, but, also, fashioning a state machinery fit to provide strong, regulatory support for private enterprise to thrive. That, for us, is the heart of the private-public-partnership, that can fast-track our development,” he noted.
President Akufo-Addo further indicated that his government aimed at creating a state machinery that could manage efficiently its fiscal and monetary responsibilities that could reform its tax administration to ensure that all private sector operators discharged their full tax obligations to enhance domestic resource mobilisation, and that could promote the rule of law.
“It is important that all of us make systematic efforts to turn our backs on the sad history of massive flights of capital out of our country and continent from unconscionable inter-company pricing and other practices, and lay the conditions for fairness in the administration of our economies,” he added.
The President told the Forum that Ghana wanted to participate in the global market place “not on the basis of the exports of raw materials, but on the basis of things we make. We want to bring greater dignity to the lives of millions of people in Ghana. We want to build a Ghana Beyond Aid.”
Source: GNA