Prime News Ghana

UK Export Finance to increase investments in Ghana

By PrimeNewsGhana
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UK Export Finance, UKEF the UK government’s export credit agency, has placed its market risk appetite for Ghana at £1.5bn, which should support more investment and trade between the two countries, the West Africa regional representative of UKEF, Steve Gray, has said.

Market risk appetite is the willingness of investors to bear financial risk, with the expectation of generating a potential profit.

Speaking at a virtual seminar on Doing Business with Ghana under the auspices of the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC), Mr. Gray stated that his agency is keen to support any viable export business from the UK to Ghana.

UKEF support falls broadly into two categories: support for overseas buyers and support for UK exporters. Support for overseas buyers involves providing attractive financing terms for overseas buyers of UK goods and services, while support for UK exporters entails providing protection against the risk of non-payment by an overseas buyer, helping to raise bonds required under an export contract, and granting assistance to satisfy working capital requirements.

He said UKEF’s supplier credit guarantee supports the purchase of capital goods and services worth $0.5m-U$20m by Ghanaian companies.

To qualify for the credit, he urged companies to ensure good corporate governance and transparency as well as good management of their accounts.

The CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant, said government has set aside GH₵600m to support SMEs and also offered guarantees to enable large businesses raise financing to revamp their enterprises.

He said government has set up incubation centres across the country to support SMEs and aims to formalise all businesses.

The Doing Business with Ghana seminar was held to showcase the opportunities for investment and address the challenges that UK businesses face in doing business with Ghana.