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DUBAI-EXPO 2022: AKUFO-ADDO?S CLAIM ON GHANA?S FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT COMPLETELY FALSE

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Finance

2 years ago



President Akufo-Addo has touted Ghana’s economy as the best when compared with its West African neighbours.

Highlighting the country’s achievements in trade and investments at the 2022 Dubai Expo, the President said Ghana was the largest receiver of Foreign Direct Investment in West Africa.

Fact-Check Ghana has verified the claim and provided the verdict and explanation below.

Claim: “We are the largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment in West Africa”

Verdict: Completely false

Explanation: Until recently, Ghana was the biggest beneficiary in the volume of Foreign Direct Investment in the West African sub-region.

The World Bank describes these investments as business decisions, or the purchase of interests in a company by investors that are outside the country–in this case, Ghana.

Ghana lost this position to Nigeria in 2020, according to the latest World Investment Report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The World Investment Report is released in June every year and details the Global flows of foreign direct investments in the previous year.

The World Investment Report 2021 said Nigeria recorded a marginal increase in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the year 2020, making her the largest recipient.

“In West Africa, inflows to Nigeria increased slightly, from $2.3 billion in 2019 to $2.4 billion. The average price of crude oil dropped by 33% in 2020, and lower demand along with supply-side constraints caused by the slowdown in site development restricted FDI to the country in the first half of 2020.”

The current report however noted that Ghana saw more than 50% decline in the volume of its FDI for the year 2020.

“Ghana registered a 52% decline in FDI in 2020, leaving inflows at $1.9 billion, from $3.9 billion in 2019. Stringent lockdown measures in the first half of the year contributed to the investment decline, with the country among the first in the continent to impose mobility restrictions,” the report noted.

The report further stated that “almost half of the FDI to Ghana was in manufacturing, whereas the services and mining sectors accounted for 25 and 16% of foreign investment.”

Below is a tabular representation of West Africa’s volume of FDI in nominal terms by the World Bank.

[FDI ­ inflows, by region and economy, 2015–2020 (Millions of dollars)]

FDI INFLOWS

  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Benin 150 132 201 194 218 176
Burkina Faso 232 391 3 268 163 149
Cabo Verde 120 125 111 110 107 73
Côte d’Ivoire 494 578 975 620 936 509
Gambia 13 – 28 18 52 44 46d
Ghana 3,192 3,485 3,255 2,989 3,879 1,877
Guinea 53 1618 578 353 44  325
Guinea-Bissau 19 24 16 21 72 20
Liberia 627 453 248 129 87 87
Mali 276 356 563 467 721 308
Mauritania 502 271 587 773 887 978d
Niger 529 301 339 466 717 367
Nigeria 3,064 3,453 2,413 775 2,305 2,385
Senegal 409 472 588 848 1065 1481
Sierra Leone 252 138 129 218 368d 349d
Togo 258 – 46 89 -183 346 639

d- estimates   Source: World Investment Report,2021, page 248

In Africa, the report said the five countries below are the largest recipients of FDI in 2020.

  • Egypt $5.9 billion
  • Republic of the Congo $4.0 billion
  • South Africa $3.1 billion
  • Ethiopia $2.4 billion
  • Nigeria $2.4 billion

Following from the above, it is clear that President Akufo-Addo’s claim that Ghana is the largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment is Completely false.

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