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First City Investor’s Guide In West Africa Highlights Opportunities In Kumasi, Ghana
Apr 21, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
Kumasi and New York, 21 April 2008. Columbia University's Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) say Kumasi and its surroundings offer substantial opportunities for investors world-wide, in particular in fruit and cocoa-processing, tourism, retail, and pharmaceuticals.
Investment opportunities are at the heart of Invest in Ghana: Focus Kumasi, the first of MCI’s series of city investment guides for a city in West Africa. It will be released in Kumasi on 21 April 2008, 15:00 hours local time (15:00 hours GMT), during the Kumasi Investment Day.
"The present guide is meant to help Kumasi attract investment, including foreign direct investment – which, in turn, will create jobs and income in Kumasi and raise the demand for farm outputs in nearby rural communities where efforts are underway by The Earth Institute and others to increase agricultural production," says Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, The Earth Institute at Columbia University. Adds Karl P. Sauvant, Co-Director of the MCI and Executive Director, Columbia Program on International Investment (CPII): “Investors world-wide should look at Kumasi, lest they miss out on the concrete investment opportunities that offer themselves in Ghana’s second largest city.”
The traditional leader of the Ashanti Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, welcomes the efforts to attract more investment into Kumasi, capital of the Ashanti region, and offers the assistance of the Stool Secretariat in facilitating leases wherever possible.
And Patricia Appiagyei, Metropolitan Chief Executive, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly assures investors: “The Kumasi City Administration, working with the Ghana Investment Promotion Center, is making every effort to welcome investors and facilitate their operations.”
Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, who is in Ghana for UNCTAD XII, observes: “UNCTAD is proud that, on occasion of its twelfth conference, it can make this concrete contribution to its host country, Ghana.”
The Guide was prepared by the MCI of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and CPII, in cooperation with UNCTAD, and with the support of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC). The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) and the European Business Council for Africa and the Mediterranean (EBCAM) lent their support to this effort. It is supplemented by a CD-ROM prepared by UNIDO that provides details about 25 investment opportunities.
INVEST IN GHANA: FOCUS KUMASI
The principal investment opportunities in Kumasi and surroundings are found in agriculture and agro-processing. The Ashanti region produces 20 percent of Ghana’s cocoa, which runs a very close second to gold in Ghana’s exports and commands a 10 percent price premium on the world market for its superior quality. The region also grows a large number of other crops, including a variety of fruits. There are thus opportunities in such areas as commercial cocoa farming and cocoa processing, as well as fruit-juice and vegetable-oil processing.
There are also opportunities in tourism, since Kumasi is the historical capital of the Ashanti kingdom as well as a natural stopover for tourists following the North-South slave route.
The city also attracts significant numbers of business travelers. One specific opportunity area identified in the Guide is thus hospitality facilities, since Kumasi lacks sufficient hotels and restaurants of superior quality.
There are opportunities as well in retail space, light manufacturing, including pharmaceuticals in particular, and mining. Yet others may be found in textiles, horticulture and infrastructure.
Highly attractive incentives are available to make many of these opportunities even more tempting.
The domestic market in Ghana is growing and is especially important for investors in certain sectors, e.g. pharmaceuticals.
As far as the regional market is concerned, Ghana is one of the 15 members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). With regard to overseas markets, it is one of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) that receive preferential treatment from the European Union. It also qualifies under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which gives it preferential access not only to the EU but to many other rich markets, e.g., Japan. Ghana’s access to the US market is guaranteed by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which covers more than 6,400 items.
While the operating environment in Ghana has its challenges, things have been improving steadily in Ghana. The main advantages of investing in Kumasi that make the city one of the most attractive places in which to invest in West Africa are:
· a safe and business-friendly environment,
· a central location in Ghana and the neighboring region,
· a pleasanter, less humid, climate than the other major cities in Ghana,
· a lower-cost environment than elsewhere (in particular Accra) in Ghana,
· a number of tax intensives provided for by the Government of Ghana for regional centers (outside of Accra and Tema) and agricultural products and agro-processing, and
· the availability of skilled staff, primarily through the presence of the well-regarded Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
FOLLOW-UP
As part of the launch of the investment guide, the Kumasi Investment Day is taking place today. It was opened by the Hon. Agyemang Manu, Deputy Minister for Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiatives, and attended by the Hon. Patricia Appiagyei, Metropolitan Chief Executive, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly; Nana Asampong Boakye, representative of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II; and about 120 participants (among them representatives of foreign investors).
As further follow up, the city of Kumasi and the MCI are embarking on a Kumasi Investment Initiative aimed at making the city a more attractive site for investment. This initiative includes, among other things, the installation of an investment desk and establishment of a Business Advisory Council as a mechanism for a continuing public-private sector dialog. In parallel to targeting potential investors for concrete investment opportunities, the city will be assisted in building a capacity for investment promotion and facilitating investors.
The Earth Institute at Columbia University launched the MCI (www.earth.columbia.edu/mci. MCI’s core mission is to help a number of cities across sub-Saharan Africa in the transformation essential for sustainable development and attaining the Millennium Development Goals. TheThe MCI initially concentrates on policy analysis impacting foreign direct investment and investment promotion activities, with a view toward creating employment, stimulating domestic enterprise development and fostering economic growth. This work is being pursued complementarily with promoting integrated development strategies for the selected cities. ) as the urban complement to the Millennium Village Project (www.millenniumvillages.org). It is an effort to support, through research, policy analysis and focused promotional activities, selected mid-sized cities across sub-Saharan Africa.
Beginning 15:00 hours GMT on 18 April 2008, the Kumasi Guide will be available on-line at: www.gipc..org.gh; www.earth.columbia.edu/mci/; and www.cpii.columbia.edu .
For queries in Accra, please contact Augustine Otoo (tel. +233-244-263787 or aotoo@gipc.org.gh); for queries in Kumasi, please contact Abenaa Akuamoa-Boateng (tel. +233-244-263787 or abenaa_akuamoaboateng@yahoo.co.uk); for queries outside Ghana, please contact Joerg Simon (tel. +49-711-604294 or suma2306@yahoo.com).
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