Ghana has acquired $2.6 billion as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the 4th quarter of 2020, representing over 130 percent increase compared to the FDI for the third quarter of 2020.

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre in its investment report for the 4th quarter of 2020 says the significant FDI recorded was against expectations following the Covid-19 outbreak.

While delivering the 4th quarter 2020 report, the CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Yofi Grant mentioned that for the year under review, Ghana had registered over 270 new projects in 8 of the country’s 16 regions. This comprised 129 newly registered projects, 131 upstream developments and 19 free zones activities -dispersed across eight regions, with Greater Accra registering the highest number of 231 projects.

“The FDI component and local components from these investments amounted to US$2,650.97 million and US$145.52 million respectively for 2020. The total initial capital transfers recorded for the period also amounted to US$75.91 million. The FDI value of US$2,650.97 million gives a significant increase of 139.06% over the FDI value of US$1,108.93 million recorded in the year 2019,” he said.

He added: “Cumulatively, some 27,110 jobs are expected to be generated from the aforementioned registered projects.”

In terms of the sector allocation of the investments, the manufacturing sector with 57 projects recorded the largest FDI value of US$1,270.53 million. This was followed by the services and mining sectors with FDI values of US$656.19 million and US$ 424,32 million respectively.

On the domestic front, additional equity (cash and goods) totalling US$69.28 million was ploughed back as investment from 172 already existing companies, whereas US$250.68 million (GHC1,438.91 million) was obtained from 52 wholly Ghanaian-owned ventures.

The Investment Promotion Centre is hoping to acquire about $3 billion by December 2021.

Source: Ghana/Kasapafmonline.com/Additional files from citibusinessnews.com