President Mahama calls on Japanese companies to invest in Ghana

President John Dramani Mahama has urged Japanese companies to invest in Ghana, saying the country is open for business and offers a strategic gateway to West Africa and the African continent.

He made the call at a high-level Presidential Investment Forum held in Yokohama, Japan, on the sidelines of the ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-9).

The forum, which brought together more than 100 Japanese companies, was organised by the Centre in partnership with Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Agribusiness, and the Japan External Trade Organisation.

President Mahama said Ghana was ready to support Japanese investors with fast-track approvals, sovereign guarantees, blended financing frameworks, and access to industrial sites.

He encouraged Japanese firms to enter into local content and technology transfer agreements to help train Ghanaian workers and managers.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr Simon Madjie, highlighted Ghana’s transformative economic agenda and pointed to two flagship programmes, the Big Push Agenda and the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Development Programme, as key drivers of investment.

He added that Ghana had introduced investor-friendly measures, such as streamlined approval processes, one-stop investor services, revisions to the GIPC Act to remove minimum capital requirements for foreign investors, as well as access to sovereign guarantees and industrial sites.

By: Jacob Aggrey