Just as global foreign direct investment (FDI) collapsed in 2020, falling 42 per cent from $1.5 trillion in 2019 to an estimated $859 billion, latest UNCTAD Investment Trends Monitor showed that Ghana edged out Nigeria in value of earnings by $.1bn.
Ghana received a total of 279 FDI projects valued at $2.7 billion in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic leaving Nigeria with $2.6billion of the global volume.
Details on Ghana FDI showed that the projects will go into areas such as manufacturing, services, building and construction, agriculture, mining, petroleum and export trading and are expected to generate 27,110 jobs nationwide.
According to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) that facilitated the investment drive, a total value of $2.65 billion of those projects were foreign investments while $145 million were domestic.
Ghana’s Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, noted that last year’s FDI saw about 140 per cent increase in investment over the 2019 because of sound monetary and fiscal policies and expansion of the country’s economic space.
He said 184 of the projects will go into services, 57 to the manufacturing sector, 15 to export trading, and 10 to general trading.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said, for instance, the manufacturing sector will receive $1.2 billion, $650 million for the services, $120 million will go into the mining sector, and $122 million into the petroleum sector.
Some of the foreign countries that made various investments into the local economy include China, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia and South Africa.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah indicated that the GIPC had been tasked to ensure the equity and logistical components were realised.
The projects are expected to be implemented in eight regions including the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Volta, Oti, Western, Eastern and Northern.
Two hundred and thirty-one (231) of the projects will go to the Greater Accra, 31 to Western, seven to Ashanti, three to Volta, three to Eastern and Upper East and Central Regions will have one each.
