Ghana has recorded a downward slope by placing 9th as one of the preferred investment destination hub in Africa, according to a study by Rand Merchant Bank Ltd (RMB).
Findings by RMB analysts and co-authors of the study, Celeste Fauconnier and Neville Mandimika showed that Ghana dropped from fifth to ninth place in the 2019 rankings mainly as a result of a downward review of the 2018 growth rate by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The other countries in the top 10 list included Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Cote D’Ivoire.
According to Fauconnier, she anticipated Ghana slipping from 5 to 9 for two reasons – other African countries performing faster than Ghana, especially in fiscal indiscipline.
“Other countries performing faster than Ghana. Smaller countries in East Africa like Rwanda to bigger economies like Ethiopia have been moving up the ranks specifically in its business environment rankings. Over the past few years Rwanda been the fastest reformer in the world when it comes to its business environment. The other reason Fiscal indiscipline tax collection, higher date levels, fix they had on rating agencies, views, reports on Ghana in the past three years.” She said during a presentation at the fourth Economic and Business Breakfast Forum organized by the First National Bank (FNB).
In order to bring Ghana to the forefront of international investiture, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said there is the need to demonstrate a track record with the new initiatives that government is rolling out.
He explained the new initiatives like the fiscal responsibility act, the fiscal advisory council, and financial stability council are the pecks that will hold down the cancer of fiscal indiscipline.
He added, “The message that I will like to send to the international investor community is that of there is anything that you can look to apart from these, is the immediate track record of Ghana as a state. I’m not talking about the Akufo-Addo administration but Ghana as a state in the immediate past years has demonstrated a certain level of fiscal discipline which has enabled us come to this point and which we are hoping to keep now with pieces of legislation, etc together”.
