Ghana’s ICT sector deserves your investment – Ursula tells Canada Investors

Ghana’s Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said it’ll be prudent for the business community to invest their resources into the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) space for young professionals venturing into entrepreneurship roles.

She said such investments would end up in double or triple aspect and further open other business opportunities for more returns due to the structures and progress already made in the ICT field by the Government over the period.

The Ablekuma West lawmaker addressing the Diaspora investor community at the end of a six-day Ghana-Canada Investment Summit (GCIS) organised by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) in Toronto, Canada added that, Ghana is currently focused on developing ICT with the youth as her pivot.

“The country has, over the years, trained several young professionals with marketable skills in ICT. Currently, the Government has built several Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education-focused schools to train our young ones in these areas and whip up their interest in that field as they grow.

“Ghana is also taking advantage of its status as an English-speaking country to attract business processing orders and outsourcing/back-office jobs from the USA, Canada and the rest of Europe. We currently have a large number of our ICT professionals taking on several remote jobs from other parts of the world in the comfort of their homes and delivering marvelously because they have been trained for the international job market.”

She added, “This particularly is an area that all African diasporans in Canada should be looking at investing in to boost the human capital and transform most of these young professionals into entrepreneurs in the ICT space. This, I believe, is an avenue that will steadily double or triple your investments and open other business doors for you.”

Madam Ursula further stated that partnership with local specialized institutions such as Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and other emerging technologies for capacity building for the knowledge economy is a specific investment opportunity that has prospects of higher returns.

In addition, she indicated that, “joint ventures or other arrangement with Ghanaian FinTech companies to serve largely underdeveloped sector on the continent. Business process outsourcing. Supply of high-tech telecommunications equipment. Technology Parks, mini tech hubs. Back-office operations (especially for financial institutions). Investment in key digital governance infrastructure. Investments in the last mile connectivity to improve access and drive down cost. Transaction processing. Manufacturing, assembling and supply of computers and accessories” are some specific investment opportunities for the business community.

The Ghana-Canada Investment Summit brought together delegates from the international investor community especially from Canada, venture capitalists and private equity fund managers amongst others for in-depth discussions and exploration of viable investment opportunities within various sectors of the Ghanaian economy. It was also aimed at matching diaspora, Canadian investors and local entrepreneurs and create awareness of the potential of Diaspora Direct Investment while increasing trade between Ghana and Canada.

Also present at the Summit were a number of state officials, including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shelly Ayorkor Botcwey, the Minister for Tourism and Culture, Dr Awal Ibrahim Mohammed, GIPC boss, Yofi Grant and other well-known dignitaries.