By Elorm Desewu
The Foreign Direct Investments, (FDI), legally registered in the country for the first half of 2020 has recorded US$688.74 million in value and 69 projects in numbers.
Out of this, the FDI component and local components amounted to US$627.52 million and US$61.22 million respectively. The total initial capital transfers recorded for the period also amounted to US$55.75 million. The FDI value of US$627.52 million was a significant increase of 409.10% over the FDI value of US$123.26 million recorded in the first half of 2019.
Of the 69 projects registered, 45 were wholly owned foreign enterprises, representing 65.20% with a total estimated cost of US$127.80 million. The Joint Venture projects between Ghanaians and foreign counterparts were 24, representing 34.78% of the registered projects and with a total estimated cost of US$560.93 million.
Out of the 69 projects registered, the services sector, with 25 projects, recorded the highest number of projects. Manufacturing and Export trade sectors followed with 21 and 11 projects respectively. In terms of the estimated cost of investments, the general trading sector recorded the largest value of US$246.05 million. This was followed by the mining exploration and manufacturing sectors with estimated cost of US$231.02 million and US$170.67 million, respectively.
In terms of regional distribution of the projects registered, six (6) regions directly benefited from the 69 projects. 59 projects, representing 85.51% of the projects registered are in the Greater Accra region. The other regions are the Central and Eastern regions with a project each, Ashanti and Volta regions with two (2) projects each and the Western region with four (4) projects
A total of 14,614 jobs are expected to be generated from the 69 projects registered, with operation at full capacity. 14,052 (96.15%) of these jobs would be available to Ghanaians whilst the remaining 562 (3.85%) are expected to be taken up by non-Ghanaians.
China, with 12 projects, was the leading source of investments registered by number in the first half of 2020. In terms of FDI value, the United Kingdom, with US$238.90 million was the country with the largest investment value.
A total of 28 wholly Ghanaian owned projects with total estimated cost of GHC1,365.26 million were registered during the first half of 2020. These projects were registered for the agriculture, building & construction, general trading, manufacturing and services sectors.
In the second quarter of 2020, 22 projects were registered by GIPC with total estimated value of US$499.20 million.
This comprised FDI of US$447.31 million and local component of US$51.89 million. Total initial transfers amounted to US$40.49 million. Of the 22 projects registered, 10 were wholly foreign owned, representing 45% of the number of projects and with a total estimated cost of US$7.57 million.
The Joint Venture projects between Ghanaians and their foreign counterparts were 12, representing 55% of the number of projects and with a total estimated cost of US$491.63 million.
Out of the 22 projects registered in the second quarter of the year 2020, the services sector, with 7 projects, recorded the highest number of projects. Manufacturing and General Trading sectors followed with 6 and 4 projects respectively.
The investments recorded by the Centre in the first half of 2020 have prospects of generating a minimum of 6,489 jobs. 5,972 (87.2%) of these jobs are to be generated for Ghanaians and the remaining 562 (8.7%) will be for Non-Ghanaians.
