Ghana’s Finance Ministry has launched an investment and savings account which targets Africans in the diaspora known as the African Sankofa Account.

Both the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Ghana would manage it.

The Sankofa Account, which is coming on the back of a successful Year of Return, would be used by the government of Ghana as a channel to attract investment from the diasporans who flooded the country so as to reap mutual financial benefits for both the country and the diasporans.

The central bank would work out the modalities for the account.

According to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, the Sankofa Account is targeting at least US$3 billion annually.

“In 2017, the country realised about $1.6 billion from remittances; it increased to $2.5 billion in 2018 and there are projections it would cross $3 billion in 2019, after securing about 2.5 billion dollars in the first quarter of this year,” he said at the launch of the account.

“So, our expectation is that even if we were to look at the level of remittances that we are experiencing, which, hopefully, this year will be over US$3 billion, our deep feeling is this new account will rival that in a period of a year or two”, he added.

Mr Ofori-Atta said the government opted for an investment account because it did not require rigid regulatory restrictions to operate and also offers a more flexible approach to securing the required funds from investors.