Ghana Investment Promotion Centre’s (GIPC) indication that it will stop reserving the retail sector of the economy for only Ghanaians, was only a suggestion geared towards boosting investment both internally and externally.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Centre’s CEO, Yofi Grant, said the Centre has not put forth any concrete policy in that regard.
During the Citi Business Festival‘s investment forum on Tuesday, he had intimated that, GIPC will no longer reserve the retail sector for Ghanaians as a means of incentivizing them to move into critical sectors of the economy, such as production and manufacturing.
Mr. Grant argued that, it was time for indigenous businesses to expand their operations and move beyond the retail sector, which is mainly made up of the sale of imported goods, and petty trading.
But throwing some light on the development, he explained that “Government has not yet indicated that we are necessarily going to remove the laws. GIPC as the investments promotion agency constantly reviews its laws to make them more effective in driving investment both internally and externally, and also plays a role in making sure Ghana achieves the economic targets it has put in place.”
“So what we have been doing is having these stakeholder engagements with various sections of the population trying to find their views on some of these suggestions in the light of the fact that the President has clearly articulated that Ghana should become the best place to do business in Africa in the medium-term.”
Mr. Grant was coming off a meeting with the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) on Wednesday, who have expressed some concern with this proposed direction. The GIPC CEO, however said he had ironed out issues with the union.
“I did indicate to them clearly that it is not a policy. It is putting out what the suggestions are to amend our laws to make the economy more vibrant. But the import of the statement was not even protectionism, the import of the statement was; how do we support our enterprise to grow?”
Mr. Grant also addressed concerns that the GIPC was skewed towards foreign investors. According to him, this perception existed because only foreign investors are mandated to register with the GIPC.
“The only reason it seems like GIPC focuses on foreign investors is that, any foreign investor to this country needs and shall have to register with GIPC, but the indigenous businesses only do so if they require the incentives that GIPC gives,” Mr. Grant explained.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)