Is Ghana an Attractive Proposition for IT Services and Business Process Outsourcing?
During the last 10 years, the Ghanaian government has made a serious effort to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) as a vehicle for export-led growth. Much of the emphasis has been on using technology to fuel the growth engine and as a means of diversifying from Ghana’s traditional staple exports, cocoa, gold and timber. The need for improvement is greater now than ever: cocoa prices have tumbled due to global overcapacity, timber production has become increasingly unsustainable and gold no longer the standard it was has fallen in value. As a result, the country’s GDP per capita has stagnated. Ghana believes technological investments are the answer to its export and employment problems and that it has a number of advantages over its West African neighbors. It is seeking to increase investment to make an early push into the sector and, ultimately, to turn itself into a major information and communications technology (ICT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) services player. Some
