The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) will from Wednesday June 23 to Thursday June 24, 2021, hold its maiden Ghana Diaspora Investment Summit in Accra.
On the theme: “The New Normal, leveraging Diaspora investments to build back better,” the two-day programme will bring together various primary stakeholders for conversations on the Ghana-Diaspora business relationship.
It is expected to create an avenue to foster partnerships between local and Diaspora investors, and showcase Ghana as a choice destination for doing business, to spur the inflow of Diaspora Direct Investments, the Centre said in a statement issued and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday.
The statement said the summit was consistent with the recent, “Beyond the Return” initiative, which was a follow-up to the “Year of Return” campaign launched in 2019.
It is expected to engender a more constructive interaction with Africans in the diaspora and all people of African descent in areas such as trade and investment, as well as skills and knowledge development.
President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo while commemorating the ‘Year of return’ stressed on the need to effectively mobilise and engage the diaspora as active partners in the nation’s development.
“Let us all remember that the destiny of all black people no matter where they are in the world is bound up with Africa. We must help make Africa the place for investment, progress and prosperity and not from where our youth flee in the hope of accessing the mirage of a better life in Europe or the Americas” he said.
The statement said initiatives had since been amplified to create awareness and allow for greater contribution from Diasporas, including the setting-up of the Diaspora Investment Desk (DID) at the GIPC.
Among the host of esteemed speakers are: Mr Wamkele Mene, the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance and Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.
The rest are: Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts and Mr Yofi Grant, the Chief Executive Officer of the GIPC, the statement added.
Mr Grant said, “A lot of Diasporas have consistently expressed interest in either living or establishing a business in Ghana. It is therefore our expectation to convert these opportunities to viable economic activity that will benefit the nation and the continent as a whole.”
He was confident that the summit would open the door for partnerships and encourage sustained home-based investments by persons in the diaspora, considered as partners in development.
The Ghana Diaspora Investment Summit is being held under the auspices of President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ministry of Information, the Diaspora Affairs Office at the Office of the President, Diaspora Africa Forum, and Beyond the Return Secretariat under the Ghana Tourism Authority.
There will be exhibitions and opportunity to pitch projects during the two-day summit.
