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Ghana records sharp drop in foreign investments in Q1: report

Xinhua, May 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Ghana recorded a sharp drop in Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) for the first quarter of 2016, according to a report by the Ghana Investments Promotion Centre (GIPC).

The report, carried by the Business Finder, local private newspaper, said the FDI component of total investments for the first quarter of this year dropped to 157.57 million U.S. dollars from 1.15 billion dollars at the end of the first quarter of 2015.

This, it said, represented a drop of 86.29 percent, adding that the total estimated value of this quarter's newly registered projects, including indigenous ones, was 249.49 million dollars, with a local component amounting to 91.92 million dollars.

According to the report, a total of 39 projects were registered during the first three months of 2016, adding that 30 of the projects representing 76.92 percent were wholly foreign owned enterprises valued at 85.88 million dollars.

The services sector recorded the highest number of registered projects of 12, followed by manufacturing and building construction, with seven each.

The report said export trade recorded no projects during the first quarter of 2016.

It said however that a total of 2,487 jobs were expected to be created from the total projects registered during the quarter, out of which 2,062 should go to Ghanaians.

The manufacturing sector, the report said, was expected to create 672 jobs for Ghanaians, followed by building and construction and services which were expected to create 613 and 572 jobs respectively.

The agriculture sector, which registered only one firm during the first quarter, was expected to create 16 jobs.

The report said four out of the country's 10 regions directly benefited from the registered projects during the quarter.

China, with seven projects, topped the list of countries with the highest number of registered projects, while The Netherlands, with 65.50 million dollars as the FDI value of investments, topped the list of countries with the largest value of investments registered during the period.

The Chief Executive Officer of the GIPC, Mawuena Trebah, while commenting, said 2016 "being an election year, results of investments recorded so far by the Centre have been no different from the trend in the past years of election".

She however said the first quarter of 2016 had been marked by improvement in the results recorded for investments by local investors. Endit