ACCRA, Ghana has been tipped as the second most attractive country on the continent for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to invest in, a 2022 CEO Barometer survey has shown.
Out of the 10 countries in the survey released at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire placed first whiles Ghana was second followed by Nigeria.
The survey critically examined the country’s attractiveness as an investment and expansion destination in Africa.
It would be recalled that Fitch Solutions Operational Risk Index in early June also ranked Ghana as the most attractive market for trade and investment out of the 16 West African counties.
With a Trade and Investment Risk score of 50.9 out of 100, Ghana outperformed the West Africa average of 36.4.
Key identified strengths of the country included policy consistency, openness to trade and foreign investment, stable institutions and a wealth of natural resources.
Many times, you hear people say that the continuous depreciation of the local currency, Cedi will scare away foreign investors.
What others call low investor confidence, meaning, the investor will be unwilling to engage in investment opportunities in the country as they risk losing both their principal and money they may accrue as returns on their initial deposit.
But aside from inflation [general increase in prices], investors look out for some other factors in the local economy before pumping their monies into it.
A serial entrepreneur, Shakemore Timburwa, in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb noted that the striking thing most investors consider is the safety of their investments in the country.
Investors, he also said, want their monies in safe political and economic environments.
Political environments, in that, no political party can terminate a contract of an investor due to partisan politics because the investor, is an independent person in business with government.
The serial entrepreneur told GhanaWeb‘s Ernestina Serwaa Asante, in the exclusive interview that, “The first thing is to look for the safety of my investment. Am I going to return from the investment I am injecting within the economy. As long as that question is not answered correctly, whereby I don’t feel safe to say I am injecting my money into the economy and then there are rumours sufficient times for me to return the investment, I will never come.”
“But once I feel the safety of the political, economic environments and inflation rate within the country, then I can be confident as an investor,” he added.
Timburwa stressed that, “Every country suffers from inflation, depreciation and value addition of their currency. When you are looking at these as an investor, the issue is not really about inflation. Yes, it plays a critical role. If I feel safe, even if the inflation is high and I can do my project, It’s okay.”
Meanwhile, the Ghana government on March 24, 2022, injected US$2billion dollars into the economy to stabilize the Cedi.
A Cedi current trades against the Dollar at a buying price of GH¢8.12 and selling at GH¢8.27 pesewas.
Source: Nam News Network