By Florence Afriyie Mensa
Kumasi, Sept 08, GNA – Business owners in the Ashanti region have been urged to register with the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) to help advertise and project their businesses in both local and international fronts.
Mr. Edward Ashong-Lartey, Director of Investor Services Division, who made the call, said the Ashanti Region had a lot of untapped business resources, which needed to be documented and projected in a structured manner.
Speaking at the Ashanti regional sensitisation tour organised by the GIPC, Mr. Ashong-Lartey said aside timber, the region could also capitalise on agriculture, especially in maize production, to harness more trade and businesses.
Mr Ashong-Lartey pointed out that the centre was worried about the low turn-out of business registration in the region, saying as of 2019, only 402 businesses in Ashanti, had registered with the GIPC.
He believed if the numbers of registered businesses increased, it would give the Center a fair idea of what was available and help inform policies and programmes in support of the region.
As part of the regional sensitization tour, the GIPC will educate stakeholders on its functions, sensitized them about the untapped economic potential as well as opportunities existing in the region.
It will also sensitize the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and traditional authorities in Ashanti on the need to make land available for investment purposes.
Again, the tour will seek to obtain first-hand information from SMEs, issues that inhibit their growth and understand on-the-spot analysis of companies for registration as well as facilitating development and packaging of the new investment projects for promotion, including visits to projects.
Mr. Ashong-Lartey debunked the notion by many Ghanaians that the Centre was there only to support foreign companies and businesses.
“GIPC is a government agency set up to encourage, coordinate and promote investments in the Ghanaian economy.
This relates to both Ghanaian owned businesses and businesses with foreign participation, and it is never true that we work with only foreign companies”, he stressed.
Mr. Ashong-Lartey therefore, called on Ghanaians to work together and build robust businesses for themselves, while helping to promote the socio-economic development of the country.
GNA