Ghana Free Zones to acquire more land for investors
The Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB) is taking steps to leverage the government’s one-district, one-factory (1D1F) initiative by acquiring more land in the various districts to enable local and foreign investors willing to take advantage of the initiative to use the free zones for that purpose.
Advertisement
This is to help potential investors, particularly local ones, to benefit from the various incentives, including tax rebate, associated with investing in the free zones enclave.
The Executive Secretary of the board, Mr Michael Okyere Baafi, disclosed this to the Graphic Business in an interview in Washington, DC, United States of America (USA) on the sidelines of the US-Africa Business Summit which ended late last month.
“Since we are part of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, we also want an avenue to spring into the districts. That’s why we are trying to acquire land across the country,” he said.
He said the board intended to attract many investors to be interested in the 1D1F initiative and, most importantly, play according to the requirements of doing business in the enclave; that is, to export about 70 per cent of the things produced to generate foreign exchange for the country.
Encouraging Ghanaians
Mr Baafi said there were many business-minded people within the economy who did not realise the need to invest in huge projects, produce and export to other countries to earn some foreign exchange for themselves and for the economy.
“It is because of this that we want to change the mindset of local investors that we are not only producing for the local market but for export as well,” he said.
Initiatives
He said for the first time in the history of the board, two major programmes geared towards encouraging local investment had been outlined.
“The first is a 30-minute meeting with top chief executive officers (CEOs) and business people in Ghana. That will be held on the first Thursday in July. We are inviting only 30 people for a 30-minute session,” he said.
Throwing more light on the move, he explained that the essence was to get them to invest their funds in the economy and be optimistic that it would turn their fortunes around because they would make positive returns on their investment.
The areas available, he said, were manufacturing, services, enclave development and commercial warehousing.
Mr Baafi said the second programme was the investment week, to be held from the second week in August.
According to him, a full week would be devoted to key performance indicators and the staff would be rewarded for achieving their targets, including wooing more investors to do business within the enclaves.
Incentives
Explaining the nature of incentives for investors in the free zones, he said local and foreign investors had equal opportunity to enjoy the same incentives.
“The benefits are the same: the first year is a 10-year tax holiday, whereby the 25 per cent corporate tax paid by others outside the free zones will be waived for 10 years,” he said.
Mr Baafi said after the 10 years, investors would not pay more than 10 per cent, adding: “This is phenomenal and investors must take advantage of it.”
Branding
Asked why many people were not enthused about investing in the free zones, he said: “People are not coming the way we want because we have a weak brand. We are not well positioned, and, for me as a marketer, I have come to make the brand known and make it lively to speak for itself.”
Investment tour
On his impressions about the US tour to woo investors, he said: “The enthusiasm shown by the American investors I engaged gives an indication that they are ready to do business in Ghana.”
He said the stability on the political and the economic front in the country were positive signs, adding: “We will work to ensure that the goodwill the government enjoys yields the best of results for the economy.”
Mr Baafi said the GFZB would be in constant touch with the contacts made to ensure that “we seal the deals. Until they come to invest, we will not stop pursuing them”.