Mr Grant said the GIPC was going to be more aggressive on disseminating information about the investment horizon in the country, the businesses and the opportunities to facilitate easy partnership among the business community.

He was speaking at Citi FM’s Business festival, an Investment Opportunity forum held in partnership with the GIPC with the aim of addressing challenges facing the local and foreign investors in Ghana.

Mr Grant said the GIPC was not for only foreign investors but it was established to cater for the local investors need as well, adding that his outfit was going to ensure that all investors were documented in the country.

He noted there were some incentives associated with registering investments with the GIPC. “As an institution, we are mandated to keep a registry of companies registered to do business in Ghana,” he said. Mr Grant said it had become necessary for the centre to erase the notion that it was for only foreign investors so “we are going to fish them out and force them to grow by giving them the incentives”.

He said the private sector was a major creator of jobs and so the government was there to create opportunities making the atmosphere conducive for businesses to thrive. He said “the only way you can increase jobs is to grow more business”. Mr Grant said there was consideration to change the GIPC law, which served as an impediment for investment in the country.

He said there were also attempts to recreate Ghana to become a business, financial and transportation hub in West Africa. He said both local and foreign investors could thrive on the great democratic credentials because entrepreneurs looked out for atmosphere of stability, which served as one of the key ways for growing businesses in an economy.

Mr Grant said his outfit, which was directly under the office of the President was going to push the Ministry of Education to enable students to be functional in the work place and in the new economy because knowledge without practical skills would be detrimental.

Mr Henry Wientjes, the CEO of African Tiger Holdings said hospitality was a huge investment opportunity in Ghana yet to be tapped by both local and foreign investors. Mr Wientjes said Ghana had a huge market, which put enormous pressures on the resources in the country by way of climate change, erosion and soil degradation.

He said it was embarrassing to know that Ghana could not boast as a net exporter of sugar though some African countries had made significant strides in similar produce. Mr Wientjes, who has been doing business for more than 44 years noted that the population of Ghana was becoming a disaster and suggested that the authorities should embark on birth control measures making it a priority on the national agenda.

Nana Osei Bonsu, the CEO of Private Enterprise Federation said challenges faced by Private Investors included poor record keeping and week corporate governance system making their collapse easy, which did not augur well for the country.

Mr Bonsu the federation was not against foreign investment but needed partnership as a drive to thrive adding, “monopoly should not be promoted so that infant industries in Ghana can grow”.    Mr Bonsu said all the funds needed for the growth of the Ghanaian economy resided in the country but to Mr Grant “to think that we do not need foreign investment is a fallacy” citing China and the United States as countries, which had thrived on foreign investment to grow their economies.   

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Kwesi Osei, Marketing Officer, Databank said the forum was very beneficial to the GIPC to develop policy guidelines. He said it also provided opportunities for industry players to air their views which had the tendency to strengthen the Ghanaian business terrain.