Bavarian businesses explore partnership opportunities

April 19, 2018 / Comments (0)

News

A 35-member business delegation from Bavaria, which is in the southern part of Germany, has met with its Ghanaian counterparts to explore partnerships for mutual benefit.

The delegation, which is the first trade mission from Bavaria in Ghana, is focusing on partnering local companies and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which are mostly family-owned to create new companies in Ghana and create jobs.

Head of the Bavarian business delegation, Mr. Ulrich Konstantin Rieger, said although other German investors had already visited to look at opportunities for investment, their focus was to explore beneficial partnerships that would leverage the skills and competence for both countries to create jobs.

In an interview at a business forum in Accra as part of the five-day visit, Mr. Rieger said already, the delegation had met with some Ghanaian business owners as part of the visit and would also hold a session with start-ups and a lot more businessmen and women.

Why Ghana

Ghana, he said, provided the right environment for local and family owned business to thrive, hence the decision to explore partnership opportunities.

He said the country also had a diversified industry base and a stable governance framework that created the right environment for the private sector to create jobs.

The Forum

The forum, which was organized under the auspices of the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Ghana (AHK), brought together members of the private sector to network with their Bavarian counterparts. Government representatives were also present to brief the delegation on investment opportunities in various sectors of the economy.

The Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr. Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, who made a presentation on one of the government’s industrialization initiative, “One district, one-factory”, said there was a room for investors to help support the initiative financially through skills development to help achieve the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.

“We need support but as our President said, we need to live beyond aid, and to live beyond aid, we need to have the skill,” he said.

So far the “One-district, one-factory” has received over 700 proposals out of which 602 have been reviewed.  The proposals, he said, had been classified under four groups depending on the amount required to undertake the project.

He said for Group one projects, investors required over US$2 million plus while Group Two projects would require between US$ 2 million and US$ 500,000. Group Three and Four projects would require US$ 499,000 and below.

He said out of the 602 reviewed proposals, 313 fell under Group One and Two projects while 224 proposals needed to be worked on. Also, 65 of the proposals needed below US$ 500,000 to commence.

On prospects in the energy sector, the Head of Revenue Monitoring Unit, Ministry of Energy, Mr. James Demitrus said there was a room for investment in the renewable energy sector as government had plans to scale up its use.

He said there were opportunities for the setting up of mini-hydro systems, waste-to-energy initiative and the use of solar to generate power.

The Deputy Executive Secretary in Charge of Corporate Affairs at the Ghana Free Zones Authority said Free Zones provided the platform for opportunities for sustainable partnerships and therefore urged members of the delegation to consider using that platform as they sought to explore partnerships in Ghana.

Sources: Daily Graphic Newspaper,  April 19  2018

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *