Free Zones Board launches investment promotion week

The Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB) has launched a week-long celebration to promote investment opportunities in the export-oriented business for local investors.

The celebration dubbed: “Investment Promotion week” is part of strategies to encourage Ghanaians to invest for export.

The celebration is fixed for every last week of August every year and it’s aimed at encouraging Ghanaian business executives and entrepreneurs, who have surplus funds, to invest in the Export Oriented Business.

The maiden celebration is on the theme: “Promoting Export Oriented-Investment for National Development.”

Activities lined up for the week long celebration include media briefing on the activities of the GFZB, breakfast meeting with business owners, tour of the Free Zones enclave, Staff Durbar and a Corporate health walk at the Peduase Mountains on Saturday.

Mr Michael Okyere-Baafi, Executive Secretary of the GFZB, at a media briefing, reiterated his outfit’s commitment to engage Ghanaian Business men and women by aggressively marketing the investment opportunities available under the Free Zones programme locally.

He said the GFZB data shows that out of 201 licensed Free Zones companies, only 56 companies were wholly owned whilst 63 were joint-ventures.

This represents 28 and 31 per cent respectively whiles 82 companies, representing 41 per cent were foreign owned.

This, Mr Baafi, said the GFZB have had various interactions with members of the Association of Ghana Industries to highlight the investment opportunities in the Free Zones programme and encourage them to utilize the opportunity by investing in the GFZ programme.

He said Government appreciated Foreign Direct Investment into Ghana, but the GFZB was of the conviction that many more Ghanaians have the capacity and resources to venture into the export-oriented activities. He said the total value of exports generated under the Free Zones Programme from 1996 to December 2016 was $30.9 billion whiles the figure for only last year was $2.3 billion.

The Executive Secretary said the Free Zones Regulations gives the Board the flexibility to license export-oriented companies located outside the declared and designated areas for which the GFZB was taking opportunity to working towards facilitating the operations of President Akufo-Addo government policy on ‘One District, One Factory’.

Mr Baafi said the rational for establishing the GFZ in 1995 still remains valid and that the main policy objectives for the implementation of the GFZ Programme was to promote economic development through the attraction of local and foreign direct investment and promotion of export diversification.

The other objectives are to increase foreign exchange earnings, provision of business opportunities for local and foreign investors to undertake joint ventures, enhancement of technical and management skills of Ghanaians and the promotion of technology transfer.

He applauded the investors for their faith and confidence in Ghana’s Free Zones programme and expect an increase in the number of employment at the Tema Export Processing Zone and all the single factory zones.

The GFZB was established by an Act of Parliament – Free Zone Act, 1995 (Act 504).

It was designed to promote the processing and manufacturing of goods and services for export and combines both enclave and single factory enterprise schemes and make Ghana accessible to potential investors.

It is a Government policy implemented to promote export oriented investments and is completely driven by the private sector.