'Indians can help Ghanaians become entrepreneurs'

Indian assistance is required to help train younger Ghanaians to become entrepreneurs in the country's quest to become industrialised, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Ghana's minister of trade and industries, said here.

Addressing a meeting of the India-Ghana Business Forum organised by the Indian High Commission on Tuesday for a group of 20 visiting Indian businessmen, Spio-Garbrah said: "There is the need to fill the gap for the country's next generation by helping to school them to become industrialist... and Indians could help in that direction."

Ghana had high prospects that could be exploited for development through partnership with investors, he said.

"We must, however, be looking at how to make the country industrialise."

Eugenia Okyere, a project officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), said Indian investment currently totalled about $637.34 million, which made India the second largest source of foreign direct investment, covering 602 projects. China was the largest investor on the books of the GIPC.

Indian High Commissioner in Accra K. Jeeva Sagar said Indians in Ghana had received the kind of "welcome that defines the people in the country".

Ghana was not just a country with goodwill towards Indians, but its state institutions also had the strength and dynamism to make the country stable and peaceful, Jeeva Sagar said.

"Ghana's democratic credentials with respect to the 2012 election petition exhibited the country's political stability and understanding of democracy."

Jeeva Sagar said Ghana's peace and stability, in addition to its human resource, explained why the Indian business delegation chose to visit the country.

Telecommunications Consultants of India (TCIL) is currently implementing the e-Network project in Africa spanning more than 57 countries in Africa and Asia.