By Olayiwola Balogun – In a bid to identify new investment opportunities and support Ghana’s economic recovery plan, the 8th UK-Ghana Business Council convenes in London to boost £2.2bn trade relationship. The Council has announced £1m to back new business and energy programmes in Ghana.
The UK and Ghana have on Thursday 8 June 2023, launched a new investor group to help identify mutually beneficial investment opportunities for both countries in a boost to the existing economic partnership.
The announcement at the 8th UK-Ghana Business Council meeting in London, co-chaired by the Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell, the Minister for International Trade, Nigel Huddleston, and the Vice-President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, comes as the two countries committed to strengthen trade and increase investment.
The business-led UK-Ghana Investor Group will include UK investors and key investment facilitation agencies in Ghana and the UK, and will help generate leads on viable projects in areas such as pharmaceuticals, textiles, and agro-processing, as well as providing support to package the projects and find UK investment.
Support for Ghana’s economic recovery from Covid was also announced, with £1 million of funding for developing infrastructure projects and increasing carbon markets.
Andrew Mitchell, Minister for Development and Africa said: The economic partnership between the UK and Ghana is thriving, with ever increasing bilateral trade and our new investor group set to find fresh opportunities for businesses both here in the UK and Africa. By working together we are creating jobs and strengthening our historic trade links, to the benefit of both our economies.
The UK-Ghana Business Council session follows the first meeting of the Trade Partnership Agreement (TPA) Committee in April this year. The UK-Ghana TPA provides duty-free, quota-free access to the UK market for Ghanaian exports. Today, bilateral trade between the UK and Ghana is worth around £2.2 billion, with the trade in goods and services increasing by £778 million between 2021 and 2022.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Minister Huddleston said: This Council has played a huge role in boosting trade with Ghana, supporting hundreds of millions of pounds worth of deals in various sectors, from textiles to agriculture.
I look forward to discussing how we can take our trading relationship to the next level and support Ghana’s economic recovery by strengthening supply chains and removing barriers to trade.
Since its formation in 2018 the Council has supported more than £223m of investment in infrastructure across the country and created opportunities for both UK and Ghanaian businesses.
Next April, London will host the 2024 UK-African Investment Summit, bringing together political and business leaders, as well as representatives of international and regional organisations from the UK and African countries, including Ghana, as a further boost to trade and investment.
Ghana is the UK’s fourth-biggest export market in sub-Saharan Africa, total UK imports from Ghana amounted to £1.3 billion in 2022.
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