Many may not have read the story, but it was there all right. On page 5 of the Daily Graphic of Friday, June 13, 2003, at paragraph 4, it was reported that “Mauritius, Egypt, Tanzania, Ghana and Chad ranked as the least attractive economic destinations”
The earlier paragraphs reported that Botswana is the most attractive place to do business in Africa.
The report was released by the World Economic Forum compiled from responses of more than 1,700 business leaders in 21 African countries.
Botswana, which topped in both the Contracts and Law sub index and the Corruption sub index, was followed by Tunisia, The Gambia, and South Africa.
Apart from the Daily Graphic, whose story was even tucked away in regrettably small print on the 'Inside Africa' page, all the other media reported the Botswana position but kept silent over Ghana's position. One radio station reported Ghana as having placed 10th!
Ghana Palaver's interviews to try to find out what could account for Ghana's terrible placement revealed a diverse assortment of reasons.
One reason given was the fear and uncertainty created by the NPP's attitude to contracts entered into by the previous Government. The abrogation of a large number of these agreements by the NPP Government has created a situation in which no investor feels confident and safe to invest in the country. There is a clear perception in international investment circles that the doctrine of the sanctity of contract does not operate in Ghana.
Another reason is the perceived favoritism in the awards of contracts. For example, Telenor, the Norwegian Company that replaced Malaysian Telecom, which had been driven out by the NPP Government, is known to have as its local agent Nick Amarteifio, the major NPP fundraiser.
The selection and award of the GPHA contract to Interberton over and above the Chinese Company that won the bid, is another example.
Yet another school of thought was of the view that the Quality Grain judgment, and the conviction and sentence of Kwame Peprah and others, had sent very negative vibes to the international investment community who felt that for Ministers to be jailed for error of judgment is a commercial standard that no prudent investor would like to subject himself to.
Then there is the issue of the coups scares. The Government itself has successfully convinced the international community that a coup could occur in Ghana at any time by their daily warnings against coup threats. Whilst those warnings may be having some domestic effect, they are also scaring away potential investors.
President Kufuor is touting as the economic model for Ghana, to be ranked with Ghana in the same 5-country bracket as the least attractive economic destinations in Africa, says a lot about the friends that President Kufuor and his Government keep!
