It is established that the total FDI for both years showed a decline from about 3.4 billion dollars in 2014 to about 2.3 billion dollars in 2015, representing a decline of about 30 percent.
However, the GIPC indicated that a photovoltaic solar power plant for the national grid, with an estimated project value of about 1.1 billion dollars accounted for the massive increase in FDI value.
The Director of Investment Services at the GIPC, Edward Ashong- Lartey however maintained that there is no cause for alarm, saying that “One project accounted for 30 percent of the total estimated values of projects in 2014 which was 1.1 billion. It was a solar project as part of efforts to help deal with the power situation so of you take that single project out of the total, you would realize that for 2014, it would come down to about 2.2 billion dollars which is slightly lower than 2015 figure of about 2.3 billion, so we are in the same region.”
He said, “Occasionally you have projects that cause us in the values and this is what happened in 2014. I would say that there is no cause for alarm because had it not been for this project, the figures would have been in the same region.”
Notwithstanding, the GIPC said the increased demand and investments into the manufacturing and construction industries are factors accounting for the increased number of employed Ghanaians as the Total employment to Ghanaians for the period increased from about 11,600 to about 13,500 and non-Ghanaians declined from 1,452 to 1,414.
“We are looking at across board, skilled and unskilled labour the companies tell us how many people they will need for their project and this depends on the type of business that they are going to undertake and the availability of manpower…in terms of the Ghanaians the manufacturing sector, construction, energy and real estate are those that require large numbers.” Edward Ashong-Lartey said.
Source: Newsghana.com.gh
