3 German Companies To Invest In Ghana

Three German companies have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with Ghana to invest in three major economic transforming projects in areas of energy, health and automobile, which would support the ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ agenda.

The agreements, when actualised, would see Germany’s auto mobile giant, Volkswagen, establish a car assembling plant in partnership with a local company in Ghana.

The other two companies are Robert Bosch Packaging Technology GmbH, which would supply technologies for the construction of a vaccine factory in Ghana and Voith Hydro Holding GmbH & Co KG, which is to supply technologies for the construction of a hybrid hydro power plant in Ghana.

These agreements were reached yesterday as part of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s state visit to Ghana.

Angela Merkel is in Ghana accompanied by a high-powered business delegation to help promote business ties with Ghana as part of a three-nation visit to West Africa.

The German Chancellor and Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at a joint press conference at the Jubilee House, expressed the willingness of the two countries to explore investment opportunities for the mutual benefit of their people, with issues on addressing illegal migration high on the agenda.

President Nana Addo reiterated his government’s resolve to create an enabling business environment to attract the needed investments to drive the country’s industrialisation agenda.

He noted that Ghana has made significant strides in entrenching democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights; these, he said, should set the basis for the international community to invest in Ghana.

“In so doing, we’ve set for ourselves a vision of a Ghana beyond aid, a Ghana which will depend more and more on mobilising its own internal resources to confront the issues of development that there are before us.”

The President noted further that the ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ agenda is leveraged on mobilising internal resources and adding value to its natural resources to build a self-dependent country.

This would mean that Ghana would have to collaborate more with the international community in attracting investments into critical areas of the Ghanaian economy to achieve that aim.

“There are a lot of opportunities here, and we are hoping that this business delegation that you have brought with you will see the opportunities that there are in several of the flagship programmes of our government, the ‘One District, One Factory’, the industrial parks that we are determined to create.”

President Akufo-Addo also assured Chancellor Merkel of Ghana’s continued co-operation with the international community on issues bordering on illegal migration.

On the threat of terrorism, President Akufo-Addo thanked Chancellor Merkel and Germany for the assistance towards fighting this threat and the jihadist menace.

“Within our modest means, we will continue to play our effective role, because clearly it is in our interest to do so. It is in our interest to contribute to ridding the region of these instruments of destabilisation and destruction,” he assured.

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was confident that Ghana is capable of weaning itself from aid and sustaining its development.

She noted that there are many areas of collaboration to drive the needed German investment to help Ghana achieve its goal.

“We are co-operating in various areas, and our objective is to support Ghana in making the vision that is to create a Ghana capable of saying that we are no longer going to rely on foreign aid. It is not an easy path, but it is exactly the right thing to do.”

She noted that the German-African compact, which promotes private sector-led development, of which Ghana is part, will provide a tailored framework for reforms to allow international investors from Germany to invest in Ghana.

Ghana is one of the three countries in African to benefit from the compact programme, and has since a €100 million from the programme.

At a business dialogue with the German Chancellor, the Vice-President, Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, said government has made significant strides in stabilising the macro-economic indicators of the country, adding that “we are pointing to the right direction”.

He added that it ensuring a strict fiscal discipline to consolidate the gains made.

He explained that the government had managed to stabilise the macro-economy, noting that the budget deficit had been reduced from 9.3 per cent in 2016 to 5.9 per cent in 2017 while the balance of payment was positive.

Furthermore, the Vice-President recounted strategic investments into formalising and modernising the Ghanaian economy.

He urged the German business community to explore various partnerships for investments with their Ghanaian counterparts, assuring them that Ghana is a safe and fertile haven for investments.

Dr Bawumia said the government's ambition of moving Ghana beyond aid could be realised by leveraging on private sector partnerships and growth.
In furtherance of this, he said since the assumption of office some 18 months ago, it had instituted the necessary framework to create a conducive environment for investments and trade.

Additionally, Dr Bawumia said the government had embarked on various reforms – including the adoption of a National Digital Property Addressing System; the ongoing National Identification System, Mobile Money Interoperability Payment System; and the smart driver licensing regime – towards formalising the economy.

He said those programmes would enable the government to identify every taxpayer and to mobilise the requisite financial resources for socio-economic and infrastructural development.

It had also planned to introduce a cash-lite payment system to be captured in the next budget statement, which would be presented to Parliament in November.
With this, in 2019, all payments for government services would be done through digital payments.

Thus, contractors who would execute public projects would be paid digitally, to fast-track payment and to ensure efficiency and transparency.

The dialogue discussed bilateral reforms and investment partnerships and the general business environment in Ghana.