The forum is a thought leadership platform created to discuss key issues within the real estate and housing sector in Ghana.

The forum is looking at pertinent issues in the sector such as the future of housing in Ghana?, the type of houses needed, which areas they are needed?, key partners required for providing  housing, and financing options available.

The panel at the forum includes Prof. William George Ntsiful from the Ghana Institute of Architects, Bright Owusu-Amofa, CEO of Appolonia, Kingsley Letsa business Development Manager at Nexans and Kojo Addo-Kufour, C.O.O Ghana Home Loans.

The rest are Nana Appiah, Head, State Housing Company, Tony Asare, Architect and Built Industry Professional, Sammy Amegayibor,  Ghana Real Estate Developers Association(GREDA), and Richard Mantho, President Ghana Real Estate Professionals Association.

The main objective of the forum is to drive the national discussion on the real estate and  housing industry in Ghana with a focus on the future of housing, sustainability, affordability, standards and financing.

By: citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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The forum which will come off on Thursday June 22, will bring together all stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry.

This will include regulators, policy makers and the private sector to deliberate on the challenges confronting the industry and explore solutions and policies to deal with the issues.

Regulators of the industry will be given the platform to discuss policies formulated or being formulated to deal with challenges and develop the sector moving forward.

The forum will among others, discuss challenges facing the industry, explore ways to deal with the challenges , spell out synergies private sector and government can create to address the challenges and push industry ahead of its competitors as well as explore ways to quicken but realistically fast track the implementation of Ghana’s 15 year tourism development plan.

The forum will also consolidate proposed solutions from regulators and private sector, inform policy direction and present a detailed plan of action moving forward (blueprint).

The key areas the forum will look at include, current state of industry ,policy direction and formulation, investment in the sector , total infrastructure ,workforce and the future of the sector.

Participants include the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts , Ministry of Aviation, Ghana Tourism Authority , Ghana Tourism Development Company , Ghana Airport Company Limited and Ghana Tourism Federation.

The rest are Ghana Hotels Association, Ghana Airlines Association, Tour Union Association of Ghana, Tourism Sites Owners and Jumia Travel.

Background
Despite its enormous potential of overcoming Ghana’s top foreign exchange earners (cocoa, gold & oil) and becoming the most significant driver of growth and development for the country, the tourism industry continuous to face challenges hindering its potential.

Figures from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), reveal Ghana’s tourism sector directly contributed GHS2.62bn ($727m) to Ghana’s GDP in 2013, or 3% of the total.

Though the figure is slightly above the global average of 2.9%, it is far below regional leaders such as Gambia (9%), Senegal (5.3%) and Kenya (4.3%).
On the other hand total contribution of travel and tourism to Ghana’s economy was GHS6.24bn ($1.73bn) in 2013, or 7.2% of GDP.

This is however significantly below the global average of 9.5% of GDP, and Kenya’s 12.1%, for example.

The need to make its development a priority cannot be avoided as Ghana’s top earner – cocoa, gold and oil continue to suffer significant plunge in revenue due to volatilities on the World market while unemployment, declining economic growth and slump in output of the current top commodity earners still remains a major challenge for government.
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By: citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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Speaking during the Investment Opportunities Forum at the Citi Business Festival, Mr. Osei-Bonsu said this would be more beneficial to Ghanaian businesses and investors, asserting that, “we are not asking for protectionism. We are asking for support.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”fjRvterpvzI55us0BmMIwX2Z276SsUx7″]He mentioned how other countries support their own business by “subsidizing their businesses to come here [to Ghana].”

“If a business in Holland is coming to explore possibilities in Ghana, they can tap into a resource to do feasibility studies at zero cost to them. Do we have that support in our system? No, we don’t. You have to use your limited resources, in addition to all the studies and research that you need.”

As another example, he noted that an international hotel chain borrows could in an external environment at a 3 percent interest rate, but a Ghanaian hotel chain borrows at 30 percent.

Mr. Osei-Bonsu also noted the failings within the Ghana Investment Promotion Center that had contributed to the struggles of indigenous businesses.

“The minimum requirement for a strategic investor [per the Ghana Investment Promotion Center] is GHc 50 million. How many Ghanaian businesses have GHc 50 million? So automatically, we have sidelined our own people. When the business comes on shore, they apply to GIPC and get a tax exemption. The tax exemption is 25 percent. The Ghanaian doesn’t have GHc 50 million to qualify as a strategic investor so they don’t get the tax exemption.”

The bottom line for Mr. Osei-Bonsu was that, Ghanaian businesses simply aren’t competitive, hence the need for “support from government to undertake everything we need to allow us to be able to be competitive.”

Incentives would boost indigenous businesses

On his part, Yofi Grant, the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) CEO, said a drive to prop up indigenous businesses would be a step in the right direction.

He noted that the GIPC had been a protectionist for long enough, and now needed to start incentivising.

“The preference is to incentivize indigenous businesses not protect them; because all the history and literature seems to indicate that when you incentivize your local business, they do much better that when you protect them.”

“When you protect them, you have other issues that come; competitiveness, quality, Inter-market pricing that does not work well for them. What you want is to elevate them and project them… ours is to make sure that we create our own big businesses,” Mr. Grant explained.

The Investment Opportunities Forum was in partnership with the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC), and was aimed at addressing challenges that face locals and foreign investors in Ghana.

The forum is a one-day conversation on the state of Ghana’s readiness to attract the needed investment for economic transformation.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Ghanaian businesses want support, not protection – Nana Osei Bonsu appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The infograph below has more on what to expect.

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By: Citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post Citi Business Festival 2017: What to expect [Infographic] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.