GIPC - Afrikan Heroes

Ghana’s Tourism Authority and Investment Promotion Council to institutionalise ‘Taste of Ghana’.

January 1, 2021

After the ‘Beyond the Year Return’, the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) in collaboration with the Ghana Tourism Authority and the Ghana UK-Based Achievement (GUBA) Enterprise is institutionalising ‘Taste of Ghana’. Taste of Ghana is a unique concept that is expected to salvage the unique taste and aroma of authentic local dishes and beverages, served in the traditional way. This is also expected to promote Ghanaian culture and market our local goods.

According to Chief Executive of GIPC, Yofi Grant, this is an opportunity for some investors to take advantage of it.

Speaking at the maiden edition of the Taste of Ghana held at the Accra Polo Club, Mr. Grant said “as the country’s foremost investment agency, ours is to promote Ghana, ours is to sell Ghana within and outside Ghana. So this is a humble attempt to let people experience the 360 degree culture of Ghana.”

“Definitely it may encourage people to see the opportunities there in our food, in our art, clothing and music…and those are all investment opportunities for people. It is important to highlight and market ourselves [Ghana] in many ways,” he said. He also hinted of the initiative being institutionalized in the future.

Dentaa Amoateng, President of the Ghana UK-Based Achievement Enterprise also said ‘Taste of Ghana’ is an event that seeks not only to entertain but create avenues for investors.

“This is a great partnership between GIPC and GUBA. We intend to do it every year moving forward. This is just the taste of what can be done and how we can grow into something bigger. The next one we could do, we could probably have investors who are willing to invest in some of these products”.

She further called on Ghanaians to patronize Made in Ghana goods, ranging from clothes, food, music, shea butter whilst promoting Ghanaian culture.

“We promote Friday wear but I think we should be wearing our print every single day and that’s something that Exim Bank has been promoting as well. We should patronize locally made food. When you go to the UK you know that the likes of Body Shop use our shea butter so why can’t we [Ghana] create our own shea butter products and sell it to the worldwide market,” she urged.

Tobias Ansah, a 15-year-old participant in the fair, had his clothing line which he started three months after going through training. Along with him was his sister who writes books.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Ghana Gets Set To Change Its Controversial Investment Law

September 26, 2020

There is end in sight for the lingering dispute between Nigerian traders in Ghana as the country is set to revise its controversial investment law that sees each foreign retail trader paying a fee of up to $1 million. To that effect, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre has completed its revision of the country’s investment law and presented a draft to cabinet. However, the bill for passage into law by Parliament will not be presented to Parliament before the end of this year.

“It is not a question of the law but a bigger issue of trade relationships between nations” says Yofi Grant, GIPC’s chief executive. “From my standpoint it is how well we can equip our traders to be competitive. Our traders are not competitive against others because the others may have cheaper sources of finance, they might have access to markets that we do not have. So for that is the real problem.”

Here Is What You Need To Know

The President Nana Akufo-Addo administration had wanted to see a new GIPC law passed before the end of its first term — to both advance its liberal economic policy agenda and have a key piece of legislation to crow about — it has backed down for now, due primarily to the fierce controversy over foreign traders being disallowed from operating in Ghana’s small scale retail space.
Ghanaweb reports that government is worried that whichever way it handles the issue in the proposed new investment code, the political opposition could create political capital out of it.
Generally, the draft of the revisions seek to further liberalize Ghana’s investment laws in order to attract more foreign investment.
The core of the investment code still in use today was drawn up in 1995, when there were still very few liberalized developing economies to compete against Ghana. Today, there are more than 100 ‘emerging/frontier’ markets in competition for Foreign Direct Investment.
However at the same time the revisions seek to facilitate greater local participation and content in industries so far dominated by foreign interests. But the strategy adopted in the draft revision of the investment code is focused more on facilitating increased local capacity and competitiveness rather than at trying to simply legislate compulsory greater local participation.

Indeed this is the approach recommended by GIPC in the draft revisions towards resolving the ongoing dispute between Ghana and Nigeria over the fate of the latter’s small scale retailers in Ghana.
It is instructive that the last time the Ghana Union of Traders Associations got government to close down foreign owned small scale retail shops in Accra, the local traders immediately took advantage by hiking their prices drastically, which indeed was part of the reason government quickly back pedaled.
Besides, pressure is mounting on government from both ECOWAS and AfCFTA to liberalize access to retail markets by nationals of member countries and with Ghana hosting the latter’s headquarters, Ghanaian trade officials fear that the country’s commitment to regionalist trade will be called into question.
Thus government is applying the temporary solution of postponing legislative debate on the revision of the investment code until its second term begins — assuming of course it wins the upcoming election — while seeking ways to ensure that Ghanaian traders would be price competitive by the time new legislation eases the restrictions.
The thinking is that from early next year, with elections not due for another four years, it will run into much less political traffic than is in place currently.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer