President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured investors that Ghana is open for business and gave the assurance of creating a conducive environment which would ensure that businesses flourish to create prosperity for Ghanaians.
President Akufo-Addo said this when the Chairman of the Al Serkal Group, Mr Eisa Bin Nasser Alserkal, together with a delegation of investors from the United Arab Emirates, paid a courtesy call on him at the presidency in Accra.
In the presence of the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, the President said the topmost priority of his government was to create jobs for the people of Ghana in order to return the country onto the path of progress and prosperity.
He said the industrialisation of the economy, with the aim of moving the country away from being dependent on raw material exports to an economy of value-added activities and the revival agriculture, would be his main focus.
It is for this reason that the Government was determined to partner with investors and the private sector to set up strategic industries to help create jobs for the youth, he said.
These strategic industries, President Akufo-Addo said, include an iron and steel industry which would exploit Ghana’s iron ore deposits at Oppon Manso and Sheini, near Tamale, and facilitate the manufacture of machine parts and equipment.
Additionally, he said the Government was in partnership with the private sector to establish an integrated aluminium industry which would exploit the country’s bauxite deposits at Kyebi and Nyinahin, and also establish petrochemical industries to exploit the oil and gas deposits from the Jubilee, TEN and Sankofa fields.
Mr Eisa Bin Nasser Alserkal, on his part, said the decision to invest in Ghana stemmed from his company’s belief that Ghana offered the right opportunities for investors in Africa, and they, in turn, would help to develop the country.
Al Serkal is a business conglomerate based in Dubai with a bouquet of companies in the fields of healthcare, manufacturing, petrochemicals, commercial and residential real estate, banking, mobile telephony and construction services.
Source: GNA
