MMDAs urged to release lands for investment

Kwame Kesse-Ag­yapong, the Deputy Director of Invest­ment Services Division, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), has urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assem­blies (MMDAs) and traditional authorities to make land avail­able for investment purposes.

He explained that the country’s land tenure system made it difficult for investors to secure lands for investments, which hampered the investment opportunities of the country.

Mr Kesse-Agyapong was speaking at a regional sensitisa­tion forum as part of a two-day sensitisation tour organised on Thursday by the GIPC in the Eastern Region on the theme “Grow in Ghana, Grow with Ghana”.

Mr Kesse-Agyapong empha­sised the need for verified land to build a land bank database, which would allow investors to view available lands and liaise with owners to boost investment in the country for economic growth.

The sensitisation forum and tour aimed to promote invest­ment opportunities and economic growth in the region and provide on-the-spot assistance to busi­nesses.

He also highlighted the impor­tance of educating businesses on how to make their projects bank­able and have solid business plans and good financial statements.

He said, “We need to also educate them on funding or financing to help them expand their business and hence we have brought them together to create the environment and link them up to financing institutions.”

Mr Kesse-Agyapong said the GIPC was committed to their mandate to attract, promote, and facilitate investment in Ghana, adding that such sensitisation tour was to fulfil such commitment to help contribute to the economic growth of the country.

Mr John Donkor, the Chief Director, Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), who spoke on behalf of the Eastern Regional Minister, encouraged the RCC and MMDAs to develop their regional, district and city inves­tor’s profiles or guidelines and fashion out clearly its investment development plans for its local business enterprises to buy into.

“The local businessmen and women are important, given the fact that their activities generate wealth for the MMDAs, the re­gion and country as a whole,” he said, and encouraged the MDAs to identify development projects which could comfortably be marketed by the GIPC as Public Private Partnership (PPP) to enhance the overall development of their respective districts and the region as a whole.