Single investor pushes FDIs up

Ghana bagged US$1.41billion from Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) for the second quarter of 2016, against $287.52 million the same period last year, about 391 per cent increase, according to latest figures released by the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC).

However, that was possible due to a US$1.05billion investment by a single Singaporean firm and not by the number of investments.

GIPC said the FDI results recorded during the 2nd quarter alone have been a considerable improvement on the levels recorded in the 1st quarter of 2016 and the corresponding quarter of 2015.

There was an increase of over 400 per cent in the amount of initial transfers recorded in the second quarter of 2016 compared with the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2015; 21 and 12 more projects than the numbers recorded in the same quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 respectively.

The report stated that the total FDI component represented 97.54 percent of the total estimated value. The total foreign equity was US$551.04 million.

Of the 51 projects registered during the second quarter, 40 representing 78.43 percent were wholly- foreign owned enterprises valued at US$391.17million which is 26.97 percent of the total estimated value of projects registered.

The remaining 11, representing 21.57 percent were joint ventures between Ghanaians and foreign partners valued at US$1.06 billion which is 73.03 percent of the total estimated value of projects registered

Furthermore, a total of 18 Ghanaian projects were registered during the 2nd quarter of 2016. These projects were located in four regions of the country, with the Greater Accra registering the highest number of 9. Seven out of the 10 regions directly benefited from the registered projects during the quarter. The regions were Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, Northern, Volta and Western region.

74 percent of all the projects registered are located in the Greater Accra region.

In terms of sectoral distribution, the services sector with 8.0 projects was the sector that recorded the highest number of projects. The agriculture sector with a total of 593, recorded the highest number of expected jobs to be created.

China, with 13 projects, ranked the number one source of investments by number of projects.

Also, with an FDI value of US$ 1.06billion, Singapore topped the list of countries with the largest value of investments registered during the quarter.

Commenting, Mawuena Trebah, CEO of GIPC, said “as we continue to improve upon our efficiency and also put into action some of the best practices as an IPA, we are confident that the end of the year results of recorded FDI inflows and other results in accordance with our mandate will be reflective of our collective team effort.