Chief of Staff woos Ghanaian diaspora to invest in motherland

The Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare has told the about three million Ghanaians living across the globe that they play an instrumental role in the country’s economic transformation.

According to her, just as the diaspora contribute to remittances in India, Mexico and the Philippines, people of Ghanaian origin in other parts of the world also make a significant contribution to Ghana’s growth through remittances.

Annually, India, Mexico and the Philippines receive over 15.5 million, 12.3 million and 5.3 million individual remittances respectively to their countries.

The World Bank says Ghana received $3.6 billion, about 5% of the countries GDP, in remittances in 2020, indicative of a 5% increment from 2019, from its diaspora.

This, the Chief of Staff said, “depicts the vast wealth processed by the diaspora.”

She noted that aside from the remittances diaspora Ghanaians send into the country, they promote trade and foreign direct investment, spur entrepreneurship, and transfer new knowledge and skills.

Osei-Opare said this during the opening of the maiden Ghana Diaspora Investment Summit in Accra on Wednesday, June 23, on the theme, “The New Normal: leveraging diaspora investment to build back better.”

It is for this reason that the government in 2017 established the Diaspora Affairs Office at the Presidency (DAOOP) to engage with diaspora associations more directly.

The office is to also build connections to harness market access, expertise, and knowledge for political inclusion, economic and socio-cultural development.

In support of this was the launch of the 10-year ‘Beyond the Return’ plan to usher in ‘A Decade of African Renaissance’ to encourage sustained dialogue with the diaspora while attracting investments.

To ensure the effective implementation of the 10-year plan, the government has established the Diaspora Investment Desk (DID) at the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC).

The desk would champion the ongoing business regulatory reforms including digitisation of government processes, and improved access to information to improve the investment climate in Ghana.

In addition to this, the government is developing a Diaspora Engagement Policy (DEP) to formalise its engagement with the Ghanaian diaspora.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and DAOOP, under the National Migration Policy (NMP), are developing the policy.

This is expected to promote constructive engagement between Ghana and its diaspora community for leveraging mutual benefits from each other.

Osei-Opare then encouraged the Ghanaian diaspora to fully take advantage of the many investment opportunities the country is offering.

She also commended the GIPC and its key partners for engaging the diaspora community proactively in the government’s bid to build a more resilient economy, post COVID-19 pandemic.

Ghana expects to be on the path to realising many of the targets set under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly, SGD 17, the Chief of Staff noted.

The SGD 17 is to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

The Head of Mission of the African Union (AU) African Diaspora Forum, Ambassador, Erieka Bennett, said that noted that businesses and the diaspora have been beneficiaries of Ghana’s warmth in welcoming people from across the world.

“Ghana has several offerings for persons in the Diaspora willing to do business here,” she said.

She added that the engagement with the diaspora presents the investing community with the chance to learn about the opportunities in Ghana in this “new normal” and leverage on such opportunities.

Ambassador Bennett also lauded the GIPC for the setting up of the diaspora desk to engage, strengthen and support diaspora investment in the country.

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Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ghana has been home to returnees from the Afro-Atlantic diaspora, particularly in the aftermath of Ghana’s independence.

Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was one of the pioneer figures of the Pan-African movement.

He engaged and encouraged the Atlantic diaspora to return to their homeland by uniting them to the newly independent Ghana, during the Civil Rights Movement in America.

Nkrumah’s efforts saw a return of some African Americans and Anglophone Caribbean’s relocating to Ghana in the 1960s.

Following the efforts put in place by Dr. Nkrumah, successive governments have also played a varying role in uniting the diaspora to their Ghanaian roots.