Yofi Grant
THE UNITED Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) held a meeting yesterday in Accra to showcase opportunities in Ghana’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
The SDG Investor map meeting was on the theme “Identifying opportunities and accelerating investment into agriculture and manufacturing.”
The digital tool provides market intelligence on investment opportunities in Ghana and its related impact data to identify and increase SDG-aligned actionable investments.
UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov, expressed UNDP’s continued support towards making Ghana an investment destination of choice and the SDG Investor Map as a vehicle for strategic development investment.”
He added that the UNDP would also continue to work with government and other partners with a vision to transform food and agriculture to be more resilient, equitable, inclusive, and environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable.
He noted that the map had enormous potential and investment opportunity areas in agriculture and manufacturing sectors that would contribute to the recovery and resilience of the sectors.
Mr Khoshmukhamedov said UNDP had been identifying specific investment opportunities at the local levels with six beneficiary Metropolitan, Municipal, District Assemblies (MMDAs).
These inlcude Kumasi Metropolitan, Ketu South, and Sefwi Wiawso, Jomoro Municipal Assemblies, Sagnarigu and Kassena-Nankana District Assemblies.
GIPC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Yofi Grant, said the map would be an important tool for both domestic and external investors.
He said because “the SDG investor map really gives you all the factors that you need to make an informed decision for investment. It gives you location, the type of industry, product and projected returns if you visit that area.”
A major concern that was raised during the breakfast meeting was the issue of infrastructure, which was noted to be a challenge to both farmers and investors in the agribusiness industry.
Mr. Grant however said he was confident “If we do it right, agriculture can once again spring back to be a major proportion of our economic growth.”
“The priority areas for government have been infrastructure. That is why we’re trying to put together 12,000 kilometers of new railway lines and 11,000 kilometers of roads,” he said.
He said the government was committed to ensuring that the country moved the produce from farm to the market, and then to export destinations.
The breakfast meeting took participants through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Investor map which was recently out-doored to help potential investors.
BY Jamila Akweley Okertchiri