Accra, Ghana//-The High Commission of India in Accra has hosted a Business Networking Reception on Thursday, 2 May 2024 at the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) Boardroom for members of the Indian Business Delegation and their Ghanaian counterparts.
The event attended by some key officials from the Ministry of Commerce & Industry of the Government of India, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), GIPC, Ghana’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Ghanaian]Business Leaders was further used to strengthen the bond between Ghana and India.
In a short speech at the event, the new Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E Manish Gupta said trade and economic partnerships are the centrepiece of India and Ghana’s relationships which dates back over 50 years.
These partnerships according to him cut across agriculture, manufacturing, ICT, and education, among others.
Mr Gupta assured that Ghana and India would continue to provide an enabling environment for businesses operating in the two countries to thrive to enable them to create employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed youth.
The Indian diplomat who spent almost three months in Accra observed that “Ghana is a forerunner in digital technology in Africa” and therefore urged Indian businesses to double their investments in that space.
The Head of the Indian Delegation to Ghana, Singh Bhatia called on the Reserves Bank of India and the Bank of Ghana to quicken the process of integrating their payment systems to enable businessmen and women to have access to Ghana cedi and Rupees to ease the cost of doing business in the two countries.
“We cherished our relationship which is based on mutual respect with Ghana and Africa” to grow their businesses in Ghana, India and across Africa.
So, we are looking forward to good partnerships with our Ghanaian counterparts”, Mr Bhatia emphasised.
The Leader of the Confederation of Indian Industry Business Delegation, S. Swaminathan added that; “It is time for Ghana to make a choice once again” for the betterment of both countries.
Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi who was the guest speaker at the reception assured that Ghana was going to leverage on the current and previous discussions to help build the relationship between Ghana and India.
He noted that the relationship between Ghana and India which pre-dates back before Ghana’s independence and even independence was nurtured by Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah and his Indian counterpart, Jawaharlal Nehru.
“So, both countries have been working on this relationship for a very long. We have been able to hold this relationship up to this stage, and we have increased the levels of business between the two countries”, Mr Baafi said.
“I have always said that we don’t take Indian businesspeople in Ghana for granted at all, and we don’t underrate them. They have contributed a lot to the development of Ghana. When we say Ghana is Ghana now, it is because of the big and small Indian businesses in Ghana. They have done phenomenally well in the areas of pharmaceuticals, ICT, and agribusiness, among others.
These are businesspeople who have devoted their time, dedication and resilience with tenacity to turn their businesses around to the success level and by the grace of God, they have gotten to this stage and they have also helped to develop other Ghanaian businesses”, he applauded.
The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa told the visiting Indian Business Delegation that he and the Volta Regional Coordinating Council have a very close relationship with the Indian High Commission to Ghana and “we have benefitted a lot from the support that the High Commission has given us, in terms of our workers going to India to study”.
He added that through that relationship they have attracted several Indian investments to the region to create employment opportunities for young people there.
Dr Letsa noted that because of these investments, they have a huge Indian community in the region, saying that during the last Volta trade and investment fair, they had a forum organised by the Indian High Commission in Ho where they interacted with Indian businesspeople in Ghana.
“Diamond Cement in our region is Indian, and many others, and among the latest is Spring Agro which is doing a lot of work but with some challenges we are trying to address. The company has the biggest rice mill in the Volta Region. So, we have many Indian men who are coming to the Volta region to do business with us and we will create wealth and jobs for our people and we are very grateful for that”, he appreciated.
The Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Yoofi Grant said: “India is not strange to us. We have been together for many years and we think that things are going to be much better”.
As a country, we got through a bite of crisis, but we covered and we doing better than we did before. Ghana’s story is told by three Os-Opportunity, Openness, and Optimistic. We are very optimistic about our plans and policies and we will get there.
We hope that learning from your (India) experiences, we can accelerate our recovery and get to a very good and safe place where your businesses will be safe here and grow”, he said.
Mr Grant continued: “There is one thing we always say to businesses who come here is that; we should grow in Ghana, and grow with Ghana”.
