The development of every economy lingers around her ability to create long-lasting business partnerships with other countries that have what it takes to create funds and support for her citizens through technology, Agriculture, and other innovative means of development.
Mr. Amoateng Afriyie, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) indicated that Turkey is an important country for business partnership. He explained that WCI Forum offers B2B opportunities for local counterparts.
“If you consider the trading volumes over the last 10 years as has been registered by GIPC, it’s approximately $335million, other trading categories from the likes of GUTA put that number above 1Billion, so in terms of inward investment and general trade, Turkey is a very important market for Ghana, they offer us know-how, technology, partnership, good financing, credit and more which are all enablers to trade”, Mr. Amoateng said.
So, in a nutshell, we want to encourage such B2B arrangements which have the support of institutions like GIPC so that together, we can benefit from the two-way trade and investment of our countries.
Been asked what foreign investments look like in figures, Mr. Amoateng further stated that, recently, there are no figures, but foreign investments have been stagnant due to the pandemic, countries are still recovering from post covid environment, and in the case of Ghana, the post covid environment and the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war among other issues have compounded the reason why Ghana went to IMF.
Meanwhile, for the past 26 years, Ghana’s exports to Turkey have risen from $7Million to $120million and thus include Soya, Soya beans, Cocoa butter, Shea butter, cocoa paste and its derivatives, Farmer Anthony Morrison, the CEO of Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana (CAG) said.
In addition, Turkish imports have also increased in the same corresponding manner worth over $ 460 million and this is an area of concern because the Chamber as an industry is talking about parity in trade (50/50), mutual trade benefits, and aggressive industrialization.
“The Agricultural processing sector is ineffective right now, but we are trying to see how we can take into consideration the availability of the raw materials to functionalize and improve the processing sector”, Farmer Morrison said.
According to him, trade between Ghana and Turkey is very critical because Turkey has over $250Billion in trade export deficit which makes it potential for Ghana to benefit in the market, not only in technical skills but also, in the areas of building capacities of SMEs, trade collaboration and among others.
Moreover, the Chamber of Agribusiness of Ghana is as well looking forward to deepening the Turkish-Africa SMEs program, likely for Ghana is a strong SME start-up program and we are hoping to link them to the Turkish partners for increased trade as well as tap into areas of investment, areas of financial support, skills development, technology, and many others.
To have better and lasting collaboration, the CEO, said the Chamber intends to set up a Ghana-Turkish trade facilitation desk and with the discussion with the ambassador, the expectation is to have future collaboration.
“This is challenging, but the opportunities are great for both sides, however, the mindset of African entrepreneurs has to change; their way of doing business, needs to be re-engaged because the Turkish people are fast business-minded people and do not waste time as many Africans or Ghanaians waste time before venturing into business”, he explained.
To strengthen the tides between the two countries, he said the chamber shall organize a trade tour in Turkey for both large and small SMEs. This includes trade facilitation, trade promotion, trade tours, and trade advisory services.
