Ghana has been on our minds a lot as a business and travel destination. Thanks to great partnerships, three distinguished Ghana government officials have visited Atlanta over the past 60-days: Joseph Henry Smith, Ghana’s ambassador to the U.S.; Trade Minister Ekwow Spio-Garbrah and the minister of energy and petroleum, Emmanuel Kofi-Armah Buah.
Ambassador Smith announced during his visit that Ghana brought in more than $3.5 billion in foreign investment on 189 projects in 2014. While in recent times, Ghana has experienced an increase in public debt and slow growth rates for some commodities, it still is recognized by the 2014 World Bank Doing Business Report as the “Best Place for Doing Business in the Economic Community of West African States Region.”
Ghana is rich in peanut production and the University of Georgia is already exploring partnerships in this area. UGA’s Amrit Bart, assistant dean and director of global programs, recently presented a model hatchery and women’s empowerment initiative to the Ghana ambassador.
UGA has also developed a concept entitled “Bringing Talent and Agricultural Knowledge to African Youth” to help spur support to the next generation of farmers by developing 4-H programs that engage youth, foster life skills and leadership development.
Over the past 10 years, trade between Georgia and Ghana grew 102 percent. Over the past 5 years, Savannah’s exports to Ghana grew 90 percent and included poultry, autos, lumber, meats, paper and other products. There is a tremendous opportunity to increase both imports and exports that should be explored. A sister port agreement is being considered as well as a sister city with Savannah to help strengthen ties between Ghana and Georgia. Liberia and the Georgia Ports Authority established the first sister port agreement a few years ago; Ghana would be the second African country to do so.
Over the next five years, Ghana will receive $498 million from the Millennium Challenge Corp., a bilateral U.S. foreign aid agency, to help bolster the power distribution system in the country. This could include on-grid and off-grid renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro and aquaponics. With the oil and gas sector growing, my hope is that companies such as Georgia Power and the Southern Cos. could provide leadership to expand relationships between Ghana and Georgia in these areas.
Ghana’s Vision 2020 growth plan is also exciting, as it will help drive the private sector through innovation and value-added products in food production, manufacturing and energy. Emmanuel Kofi-Armah Buah, the minister of energy and petroleum, seeks Georgia investors to assist him with his vision to provide opportunities for investors, including refineries.
The 25 million people of Ghana and the government are open to working with the people of the Georgia and welcome their investment in agriculture and processing, cotton and textiles, food processing, forestry, healthcare, horticulture, mineral processing, oil and gas, tourism, utilities, airports and seaports, railroads and more. Ghana’s people are friendly, are about business and want to increase the relationship between the U.S. and Ghana. As trade minister Ekwow Spio-Garbrah stated recently, “Atlanta is the African-American capital of the world.” Ties can be strengthened with the African-American community in Georgia as well.
Georgia can position itself as the hub for doing business with Africa by using Ghana as the gateway to Africa.
To further collaborative efforts and in partnership with the Ghana Embassy, the Ghana International Chamber of Commerce and Global Strategies for Good LLC, are planning a trade mission to Ghana for spring 2016. For more information, please call 678-632-2362, e-mail us at admin@ghicc.org or visit www.ghicc.org.
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