[ 2017-03-09 ]

High air travel costs, visa delays impede US investments to Ghana
The US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson, has
cited the high cost of air travel and the undue
delays in visa acquisition as two major challenges
to investments to Ghana.

According to him, the development has compelled
most investors to divert attention to other
countries within the sub-region as businesses are
more endeared to ease of doing business.

The US Ambassador made the observation when he
paid a courtesy call at the Ministry of Business
Development on Thursday.

“Among the things that hold the US investors
back include the travel cost; Ghana’s aviation
is very expensive. Secondly we see that the speed
with which the Ghanaian embassy in the United
States processes visas is about three weeks. We
have our own visa issues but we process our visas
within 48 hours. I do not know what process occurs
in the Ghana’s Embassies across overseas but I
know that the offices in Europe are far faster
than the Embassies in Washington,” he said.

“…If you want more visitors and businesses to
come to Ghana, then making it easier to get visas
will help with that,” he added. Ghana’s trade
volume with the US is estimated at 1.2 billion
dollars. The US contributed to about 900 million
dollars with Ghana accounting for the remaining
300 million dollars.

But the high cost of doing business has
constrained businesses with plans to invest in
Ghana.

The development also contributed to Ghana’s
ranking in the latest ease of doing business by
the World Bank.

The country’s 108th position has been
considered uncompetitive hence the need to revise
procedures to ease the registration procedure for
businesses.

Ambassador Jackson also believes interventions to
reduce the high cost of doing business should
improve Ghana’s bilateral trade with the US.

In a related development, the sector Minister,
Mohammed Ibrahim Awal has reiterated his
outfit’s resolve to reduce the bureaucracies in
registering businesses in a bid to attract huge
investors to Ghana.

Source - citibsinessnews.com

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