Accra, Ghana//-The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has urged Economic Counsellors of Embassies, High Commissions, and business chambers of commerce to support Ghana CARES programme.
The programme is a GH¢100 billion post-COVID-19 programme initiated by government to stabilise, revitalize and transform Ghana’s economy.
The Ghana CARES programme which also seeks to create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians over a three-year period is sequenced in two phases namely, the stabilization phase and the medium-term revitalisation phase.
Out of the GH¢100 billion, the government will provide GH¢30 billion, while the private sector and the GIPC will provide the other GH¢70 billion.
Speaking at the seventh edition of GIPC’s Economic Counsellor’s Dialogue organized in partnership with the Ministry of Finance, Ms Eva Esselba Mends, Technical Co-ordinating Director at the Ministry called on the Economic Counsellors to help the government implement programme.
The programme she believes would help transform the economy from import dependent economy to export dependent one.
“The first phase of the programme will build on the actions already taken by government under the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme”.
She added that the second phase was aimed at revitalising and transforming the economy within the three-year period.
Special attention according to her would be focused on supporting commercial farming and attracting free Senior High School programme educated youth into agric and building Ghana’s light manufacturing sector to create jobs for the youth.
Ms Mends was quick to add that the government was poised to build the capacity of Ghanaians to enable them add value to the country’s abundant raw materials.
Ministry of Finance had set up delivery units in all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to sign a compact with them in the implementation of the Ghana CARES Programme, she said.
In a welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Yofi Grant, was emphatic that “Ghana is one of the preferred investment destinations in the world”.
“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the GDP was growing averagely 7%. But the pandemic affected us. Our situation is better than other countries”.
Mr Grant noted that Ghana was the first country to include the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its national budget.
This shows that the country has embraced the SDGs and “we are looking at how we can sustainably fund the goals while working in collaboration with the UNDP to develop SDGs roadmap investment tool for the country”, he stated.
“We have embraced the SDGs because they are important to the State and our policy direction has taken a whole new turn, especially goal on Poverty alleviation and partnership linkages”.
The Principal Revenue Officer at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Lawrence Hotsonyame used the occasion to call on all foreign investors to endeavour to apply for non-citizen Ghana Card to enable them to honour their tax obligations without stress.
The GRA he indicated had taken pragmatic steps to identify and tax appropriately all online transactions and e-commerce activities to improve on the domestic tax mobilisation drive.
The Executive Secretary at American Chamber of Commerce in Ghana, Madjie Simon, lauded the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) and was certain that it would open up the Africa market for more opportunities.
Instructively, the Economic Counsellor’s Dialogue series is an annual event organised by the GIPC to engage trade, economic and commercial counsellors of diplomatic missions in the country. It is also used to address challenges impeding the growth of businesses in the country.
African Eye Report