Alan Kyerematen, the minister of trade and industry, has stated that encouraging private direct investment is necessary for Ghana to experience rapid development.

The local economy will expand as a result of both domestic and foreign direct investment.

Alan Kyerematen stressed that Ghana needs to stop depending so heavily on access to the capital international financial market and instead concentrate on luring investors to pump money into the local economy by establishing businesses there. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the third Annual Investment Week of the Ghana Free Zones Authority.

He said, “If we’re going to put investment at the centre of our development agenda then we need to appreciate the fact that we cannot continue relying only on access to the capital international financial market but we have to think seriously about how we aggressively promote private direct investments be it domestic or foreign.”

An increase in direct investments is often associated with a host country’s economic growth due to increased tax revenues and an influx of capital.

Speaking in the same vein, Chief Executive Officer of Free Zones Authority, Mike Oquaye Jnr noted that his outfit raked in over US$27 billion so far.

He added that about 33,000 direct jobs have been created for the teeming unemployed youth.