Minister for Business Development, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has challenged Canadian businesses in the country to expand their scope of investments beyond mining to other critical sectors of the Ghanaian economy such as Agri-business, and tourism.

The Minister made this call when executives of the Canada-Ghana Chamber of Commerce called on him at the Ministry last Friday. The Minister noted that although there has been some level of investments from Canada in Ghana, there are more opportunities to be explored to increase trade volumes between the two countries.

He emphasised that currently Canada–Ghana business is not too big, and thus charged the Chamber to help in improving the business relationship between the two countries “Within the next four years, let’s strive to quadruple the development of business between the two countries “, he urged.

He assured that one of the commitments of the current government is to provide the enabling environment for businesses and to provide the needed support for Small and Medium Enterprises to thrive in a competitive global market. Additionally, government would remove all bottlenecks that has long impeded the growth of business in the country.

“We are a pro-business government and we intend to remove all the obstacles that affect doing business in this country “, he assured.

He reiterates a key commitment of his ministry to improve the ease of doing business in the country such as improving registration of businesses processes, acquisition of permits, removal of nuisance taxes and other obstacles that impede ease of doing business in the country.

He mentioned for example that government would remove the 5 percent tax that has been imposed on the real estates in the country.

The Minister also emphasised the need for a regular dialogue with the private sector to understand their concerns and ways to improve them.

The President of the Chamber, Salah Kalmoni emphasized the need for a greater collaboration between the Ministry and the Chamber.

He also emphasised on the need to institute governance measures in all spheres of the Ghanaian economy and the need for government to make taxation easy and simpler.

“One of the most important things that we need is good governance because it is the key to everything else, once you a level playing field, it creates the right environment for business to move forward”.

Andria Abraham, Executive Secretary of the Chamber said Chamber would work closely with the Ministry to help in the agenda of helping businesses to thrive in the country.

“We believe that good collaboration with the ministry and from our association we would be able to give practical solutions to the businesses challenges that confront individual businesses”.

The Canada-Ghana Chamber of Commerce represents a wide range of business interest in Canada, Ghana and the West-African Sub-region.

We strive to promote the interest of our members and convey their views to decision-makers in industry and in government.

Jaime Dourado a member of the delegation said Ghana can leverage on its international reputation as a peaceful country to take advantage of the business opportunities across the globe and in particularly Canada.