Adnan Adams Mohammed
A financial expert has challenged the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) on its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows figure announced for the year 2020.
The expert argued that, the US$2.7 billion reported as investment inflows is not accurate. He posited that, it is an act of misinformation for anyone or government official to mislead the public with the wholesome figure which is rather an expression of interest and not actual investment recorded or realized.
His reaction was to correct the misinformation of the Minister of Information, Mr. Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, who at a press conference last week sought to indicate that, the GIPC FDI figure reported was an actualised investment. But the expert has challenged that, there was no US$2.7 billion investment flows recorded into the country last year.
“That number reported by GIPC is what Investors have informed them that they anticipate bringing into the country – over time”, Former Executive Director of Standard Chartered Bank, Alex Mould stressed.
Mr Mould who was also the former Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) CEO further explained that, “The GIPC and BoG have not been able to reconcile what actually came into the country.”
The Information Minister in his speech said, “The US$2.7 billion in investment inflows reported by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) for the year 2020 will be put to prudent use for the benefit of Ghanaians.
“The investment will be in areas such as manufacturing, services, building and construction, agriculture, mining, petroleum and export trading with a projected job for more than twenty-seven thousand people to help bolster the Ghanaian economy towards recovery and better the lives of Ghanaians.”
It is based on this statement, the expert challenged that, the minister spoke with certainty as though the US$2.7 billion was already in the country.
Read the full reaction below:
GIPC Reports on FDI Do NOT Indicate Actual inflows but rather intended Inflows
There were no US$2.7 billion investment flows recorded into the country last year.
That number reported by GIPC is what Investors have informed them that they anticipatebringing into the country – over time!!
The GIPC and BoG have not been able to reconcile what actually came into the country.
GIPC focus and reports on initial FDI with the exclusion of reports on Actual FDI is due to the ff reasons:
A. Initial FDI disclosure and registration is backed by the GIPC Act to ensure commitment by investors.
Where actual initial and additional FDI reporting by investors is required, it has no legal backing compared to the initial as such GIPC systems are weak in their monitoring and validation at their primary sources when reported.
B. Though investors report on Actual inflows over time especially during registration renewal, the data reported need to be validated with the primary sources (i.e BoG and Customs division of GRA) to ensure their accuracy prior to reporting.
The process of cross agency validation has been met with challenges due to varying degree of automation to harness such information. At a point in time BoG and GRA pleaded for time to complete their systems to grant the needed interface for the needed validation of actual FDI data prior to their reporting by GIPC.
It would be good for GIPC to track all these investments over time and to let fellow Ghanaians know how much investment that has actually come into the country via goods, services and cash.
This is NOT the first year that the people of Ghana are being hoodwinked to think that the Number reported by GIPC is the actual investment inflows (equipment, cash, and services) in any particular year.
The number put out by GIPC is NOT actual inflows but rather the inflows anticipated as indicated by the investor when he was filling out the forms.
The actual Inflows is obtained from a reconciliation between BoG and GRA. Inflow include Goods, services, Cash and equipment.
The question is why is GIPC not reporting Actual Inflows but rather anticipated inflows especially when the year has ended and they should have all the data from the investor and can also do a complete reconciliation with GRA, and BoG.
Why misinform fellow Ghanaians??
AKM
27Apr2021
