FDIs drop in 2018…govt misses target

By Elorm Desewu

Data emanating from the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre show Foreign direct Investments legally registered in the country have declined both in value and numbers.

From January to December, 2018, the Centre registered 168 projects with total estimated value of US$ 3.54 billion compared with 192 projects with estimated value of US$3.75 billion at end of 2017.

The FDI component for the estimated value of US$3.54 billion was US$ 3.32 billion and local component was US$ 216.58 million. For 2017, the FDI component was US$ 3.62 billion and a local component was US$ 131.53 million.

This means that the Centre has missed its projected target of US$10 billion worth of FDI for 2018.

Of the 168 projects recorded from January to December 2018, 117 representing 69.64% were wholly foreign owned with total investment value of US$ 2.89 billion. The remaining 51 were Joint Ventures between Ghanaians and their foreign counterparts which amounted to US$ 652.02 million.

From January to December 2018, a total of 954 project registrations were renewed. The current investment value of the renewed projects summed up to US$ 5.63 billion as against a total initial investment value of US$ 2.92 billion at the time of registration. Total actual employment generated was 64,215 of the initial total projected figure of 66,457.

Of the 168 projects registered, 45 representing 26.79% are into manufacturing. 42 of them, representing 25% of the total, are engaged in the services sector whilst 28 representing 16.67% are into General Trade.

A total of 17,924 jobs are expected to be generated by the 168 projects registered. 7,870 approximately 43.91% of the jobs were to be created by the service sector whilst the manufacturing sector is expected to generate 4,859 (27.11%) of the jobs.

China was the leading source country with Chinese investors participating in 37 projects. India came second with Indian investors participating in 18 projects and was followed closely by the Netherlands and United Kingdom with 15 and 12 projects respectively.

In terms of investment values, Netherlands emerged tops with Dutch owned projects having total investment value of US$ 1.9 billion and FDI component of US$ 1.89 billion. India followed with total projects investment values of US$ 549.06 million and FDI component of US$ 510.72 million. Hong Kong and Angola followed next with investors from both countries participating in a project with an investment value of US$ 364.49 million. The FDI component is US 275.75 million.

A total of 71 wholly Ghanaian owned projects with total estimated value of GHS 1.32 billion were registered from January to December 2018. These projects are located in six (6) regions of Ghana, with the Greater Accra registering the highest number of 55. Ashanti Region had 6 projects followed by the Western region with 5 projects.