Executive Summary
The Ghana government’s investment posture has been
enhanced with President John Agyekum Kufuor’s vision
to bring about the Golden Age of Business. The acceptance
of Ghana’s Agenda for Growth and Prosperity (Ghana
Poverty Reduction Strategy) by the international community
has made the country an attractive growth oriented nation.
Government has enacted several initiatives over the years
to foster increased private sector investment in the productive
sectors of the economy. These include consistent reduction
in the rate of inflation, falling cost of money, generous
incentives, the law enabling foreign investment in capital
markets, incentives (tax holidays), full repatriation of
dividends and profits, and reduced minimum foreign capital
requirements for investments. The Gold Fund is a fund directed
at mobilizing capital from domestic and international private
and institutional investors for private sector development
in Ghana. The Government’s commitment to the success
of this fund is reflected in the tax incentive granted under
the Unit Trust code. The Gold Fund (The Fund), is an open-ended
Unit Trust Scheme with an initial minimum investment required
of ¢10,000. The Fund is seeking to raise a minimum
of ¢10 billion. As an open-ended Fund, the Managers
plan to raise a lot more money to become a key source of
long term capital for small to medium scale enterprises
in Ghana.
Ghana’s strong economic growth is the success story
of West Africa. Politically, it is a republic with an open
and democratic system. The country has a number of political
parties which compete to represent the people in Parliament.
The head of state is the President, elected by universal
suffrage for a maximum of two four terms. Ghana has all
the making of a thriving emerging market – accelerated
privatization of government assets, paring down of debt,
and reduction in taxes.
Government incentives have encouraged private sector growth
as well as implementation of a privatization program for
State Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
In the past 12 months, the economy has been strengthened
by decisions made by locally-based companies to expand and
increase their levels of investment.
The Anglo-Gold – Ashanti Goldfields merger, the Guinness-Heineken
merger, the aggressive plans of Unilever for the West African
market, the Newmont Ghana Limited ‘s presence and
other private sector transactions are giving a boost to
the growth prospects in the economy. The Ghana Stock Exchange
(GSE) has been a key segment of the nation’s development
initiatives. Twenty-five (25) enterprises including domestic
subsidiaries of multinational corporations such as Mobil
Oil, Standard Chartered Bank, and Unilever are on the GSE.
The stock exchange has broadened and increased the depth
of the nation’s financial system. Returns for investors
averaged 154% in 2003 from about 46% in 2002. These returns
have made the GSE an effective hedge against inflation over
the years.
