Economist Calls On Ghanaians Abroad To Invest At Home

A Technical adviser at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Sam Mensah, has appealed to Ghanaians resident abroad, especially in Canada, to create investment protocols with various financial institutions in Ghana, to enable them invest positively back home. He said there are about 21 recognized financial institutions in Ghana, which can help them create investment portfolios to enable them invest successfully in the country, if they wanted to do so. Dr. Sam Mensah made the appeal, when he launched the Golden Jubilee Bond in Toronto, Canada, on February 16. According to him, the bond has five years maturity period with Ghanaian citizens, or permanent residents and Ghanaian registered institutions in Ghana, as eligible buyers. The technical adviser on finance and economic planning observed that interest rates and inflation rates had gone down over the past five years. He predicted that in 2013 it would be around 5.5% single digit. He laid the achievement on the high remittances by Ghanaians resident abroad. He stated that the country had passed the stage where governments could lie about the performance of the economy, and therefore advised propagandists to stop peddling falsehood about the current state of Ghana's economy, which has received international recognition. "The current rating of the country, with B plus, cannot be described as a joke, since the graders are international institutions and can not lie about the performance of the country's finance and economic planning achievements," he explained. Dr. Sam Mensah advised people to desist from propagating false information about the country, since it would have a negative effect on the economy in the long run. "The current government is a listening one, therefore when people have complaints about certain policies and decisions, they should channel them through their various associations for possible reactions, instead of living on they and us syndrome," he said. Some of the participants complained about high rates of taxes and bribes, collected at the various ports of entry, making it impossible for many Ghanaians resident abroad to invest back home. Mr. Kwabena Asare, the deputy Ghanaian High Commissioner to Canada commenting, described the Golden Jubilee Bond as a great effort by the present government to woo citizens abroad to invest in their motherland. While he described the Diaspora festival as a political gesture to woe investors, he described the Golden Jubilee Bond as an economic gesture instituted by the present government, and therefore called on all to embrace it to make it achieve its goal. So far the bond has been launched in Germany, the United Kingdom, United States of America (USA) and Canada with sales going on at the various High Commissions.