PRESIDENT AKUFO-Addo has beckoned global chief executive officers to do business in Ghana.
Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Financing Roadmap for the realization of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals yesterday in Accra, he averred, “Ghana is a prime, ripe destination for doing business. We are ranked as the most stable political environment in West Africa, and the best place to do business in the Region.
According to President Akufo-Addo, “Ghana’s commitment to the SDGs is borne out of a fundamental belief that the SDGs are at the heart of the development challenges that we face, and that they offer significant prospects for Ghana’s transformation and development.”
He told the gathering that the SDGs will continue to be the driving factors in the formulation of Ghana’s development policy, and of her overall resource allocation.
“One thing that is clear is that the pandemic has not only heightened our challenges, but it has also created new ones, and exacerbated the financing gap that we face in the implementation of the SDGs,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo therefore reiterated his determination to enhance Government’s partnership with the private sector to unlock innovative and sustainable financing to bridge the SDGs financing gap, which has been identified in Ghana’s Financing Roadmap which he launched.
“Against the backdrop of the huge financing gap, perhaps more than ever, we need a stronger, mutually beneficial partnership with the private sector. This is because it is you, in the private sector, who generate the wealth, which provides the means for our economic and social investments,” he said.
With Ghana’s Financing Roadmap estimating a financing gap of some four hundred and fifty billion dollars (US$450 billion) over the next decade to 2030, the President stressed that this is a US$450 billion business and investment opportunity for the private sector.
He, thus, extended an invitation to the private sector, domestic and foreign, to take full advantage of the great SDGs-related business opportunities that presently exist in Ghana, in the areas of infrastructural development, agriculture, industry, energy, health, communication, education, and water and sanitation.
He indicated to the CEOs gathered that the Ministry of Finance was preparing a pipeline of bankable SDGs initiatives, which would form the basis for a catalogue of well-prepared, commercially attractive projects.
Work, he added, was also ongoing to develop an SDGs Investor Platform, that would provide market intelligence on investment opportunities in the country and related impact data, to identify and increase SDGs-aligned investments.