The Chamber of Commerce and Industry France Ghana has successfully kicked off a new initiative dubbed Ghana Days to attract French and Francophone companies extend their business activities to the country.
Ghana Days is an initiative which seeks to promote the Ghanaian market, its viability, lucrative and potential nature to foreign corporate giants, multinationals and investors. In collaboration with CCI France and CCI France International which is composed of 120 Chambers in 90 countries, the Managing Director of CCI France Ghana (CCIFG) Mrs Delphine Adenot-Owusu, awarded by WomanRising as one of the 60 corporate woman leaders in Ghana, embarks on a series of road shows where meetings, round table discussions and symposiums are held so as to draw investor’s interest.
With a grade B ranking above Nigeria (D) and Cote d’Ivoire (C) as published by Coface, Ghana’s business friendly environment which stands over the sub-Sahara average needs further promotion to French and Francophone markets. The rebound of the Ghanaian economy motivated and gave birth to the need for CCI France Ghana to use its worldwide network to educate moguls on the country’s welcoming market. Ghana Days is thus a product stemming from ways to fulfil this quest.
The maiden edition of Ghana Days was executed in June 2017 where Mrs Adenot-Owusu visited France. There her road trip took her to Paris where she attended a series of meetings as well as business speed-dating organised together with CCI France and CCI France International. From Paris, her next destination was the French Region Alsace. There, roundtables where held which led to further follow up meetings with interested business giants who sought to have more information.
The success of the maiden edition sparked conversation and further planning to execute more of these events but beyond France. The second leg of Ghana Days was thus planned for October. Bigger than the maiden edition, and also making more of an impact, Mrs Adenot-Owusu was invited to meet investors in Paris, Bordeaux and Rouen in France, followed by a symposium held in Lebanon. With each group, she spoke on the reasons why to invest in Ghana, the mutual benefit for the economy and for the investor or business, and engaged with participants to clarify misgivings, as well as shed more light on business implantation in Ghana.
These events have sparked collective trade missions to Ghana to meet with local businesses according to investor’s interest. With more Ghana Days already in play to take off in 2018, CCI France Ghana has positioned itself to be a promotor of the Ghanaian market.
Early February, CCIFG will welcome the Cap Afrique seminar. A delegation of all the African experts from regional CCIs in France will come to Ghana to better understand the market and explore business opportunities. They will be visiting headline projects, meeting with key Ghanaian stakeholders as well as French companies across major sectors in Ghana.
Through its activities locally and abroad CCIFG continues to contribute significantly to the global rising of activities in the France in Ghana network as well as to the benefits of its internal network made up of more than 110 members from diverse sectors in Corporate Ghana.
For the first time since 2011, Ghana has presented at the end of 2016 a positive balance of payments with a EUR 232.2 M (USD 247.4 M) surplus. This progression is mostly a due to the improvement of the current account balance and more particularly the trade balance, whose deficit went from EUR 2.9 Bn (2015) to EUR 1.6 Bn at the end of the year. In addition to this, FDI inflows have reached EUR 3.3 Bn in 2016 against EUR 2.9 Bn in 2015, thus an increase of 13.7% according to the UNCTAD, a progression that is being pursued in 2017.
Patrick Prado, President of CCI France GhanaMr Patrick Prado, President of CCI France Ghana, Managing Director of Allianz Insurance Company Ghana Limited and nominated for the Ghana Expatriate Business award said:“Ghana is not only a business-friendly environment, but also a country which is open to global businesses”. For him, knowledge of its attractiveness can be better known abroad and mostly in France to the benefit of the local economy.
He added that foreign direct investment is critical for developing and emerging market countries such as Ghana. The capital injected and companies that extend their business activity to Ghana will cause a positive effect through the stimulation of the country’s economic development. Employment generation arises from the new companies established by investors as well as new opportunities which in turn leads to an increase in income and more buying power to the people, resulting in an economic boost.
At CCI France Ghana, we decided to use our network to its advantage to better execute its objective as a partner in the France and Ghana network. By collaborating with French Chambers of Commerce in all the French regions and abroad, we are going out there to sell the Ghanaian market so as to attract more businesses to the country. By this initiative we have named Ghana Days a means by which this objective is being executed. Business opportunities will be created to the benefit of the economy and also presented to our internal network by giving the platform to the members of the chamber to derive the most from the business network we have created.
