Ghana calls for greater Indian investments

Ghana has sought greater Indian investments, noting that its favourable business climate has lured many Indian entrepreneurs to the West African country in the past decade.

Ghanaian Minister of Trade And Industries, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, said that Indian investments would boost growth.

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) said that it had registered 512 Indian projects valued at over $988 million in the past decade.

GIPC's director of monitoring and tracking, Edward Ashong-Lartey, said that most investments from India had been in manufacturing, general trading and services.

Addressing the Ghana-India investment forum organised by the Indian high commission in Accra, Spio-Garbrah said that the large number of Indian companies - some of them over 50 years old - that have invested in Ghana have benefited from democracy and the rule of law.

"In fact, in our judicial system, the government loses more cases because the system does not bow to government pressure," he said.

One area identified by the GIPC for possible investment is renewable energy. A 2MW solar energy project has already been set up in the northern region and sites for wind energy projects have been identified in the Volta Region in the east.

He said that the Volta River Authority (VRA) has embarked on a wind energy project and sought investment of $250 million to develop a number of wind farms in the country to generate 100 MW of electricity.

In the conventional energy sector, Ashong-Lartey said that the government was looking for $315 million for a second combined cycle plant in the Kpone enclave near the capital to generate 450 MW of electricity. Another $563 million is required for a 450 MW combined cycle plant in Domunli, a town in the country's west.

There was also the proposed Pawlugu hydro project, which would cost an estimated $350 million for a 63 MW power plant, for which feasibility studies were under way, Ashong-Lartey said.

The government has also identified the country's rail sector - with a total track length of 1,300 km and a route length of 947 km - as needing public-private participation for major rehabilitation, modernisation and expansion.

Ashong-Lartey said that investors were also invited to look at the various projects for the expansion and modernisation of the country's ports.

The government was also looking to establish a credible home-based national airline to provide regional, sub-regional and inter-continental air services for which international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) had been appointed the transaction advisor, Ashong-Lartey said.

In the agricultural sector, the government planned to expand the Accra Plains Irrigation Project that involves rehabilitation of the existing facilities as well as the construction, operation and maintenance of a new network.

(Francis Kokutse can be contacted at fkokutse@gmail.com <mailto:fkokutse@gmail.com>)