The “Ghana Investment Trade Week” (GITW) was launched in Accra yesterday with a call on the government to show stronger political will to the real estate sector as a key driver of economic growth.
Slated for July 22 to 24, 2025, the summit is expected to open up Ghana’s construction industry for foreign direct investment opportunities while forging possible strategic partnership and collaborations to boost the sector.
Organised by the MIE GROUP and the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry (GCCI), the three-day event will attract over 3,500 attendees and 150 international businesses including industry leaders, investors, policymakers, and experts spanning various sectors from key markets such as the Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Launching the GITW on the theme; “Fostering partnerships for sustainable growth: Bridging trade and real estate investments across continents,” Group Chairman of Core Construction Group of Companies, Mr Frank Lartey, said while investment into the sector was critical, firm government policies could not be ruled out for expected growth.
Mr Frank Lartey (fourth from right) with participants after the launch Photo: Seth Osabukle
Drawing a comparison between Ghana and other developed countries, Mr Lartey decried challenges in the sector including access to credit, inability of the government to pay contractors on time and inconsistent housing policies resulting in the current deficit of about 1.8 million units.
“In Ghana, the central bank’s policy for lending to do any business is one year, which they call working capital. If you don’t return the money after a year’s time, they slap you with penal interest. This is really not helping us much as a nation and the government must look at it again,” he urged.
“Some time in our history, we had government which took decision to build houses like the North Kaneshie, Dansoman, Nungua estates among others. It was government policy then, they set out to build and they did it. There is the need again for that strong political will again if we are to address the deficit in the housing space,” the Group Chairman added.
The Chief Executive Officer of the GCCI, Mr Emmanuel Cherry, said the GITW would provide an interface for industry players to market their activities on a common platform.
“The time has come for us to at least do business among ourselves as a diaspora. We need to interface to make sure that what we do here is what is being done elsewhere or what we can also take outside. We always depend on imports but we also need to export.
Dubai has become Dubai today not because of anything. It’s because of the real estate sector and we can also do same in Ghana so we are opening our gates to partners, people with technical expertise, the financial industry, real estate developers as well as the other industry players so that collectively we can complement government efforts to build the sector,” he said.
For his part, Mr Emmanuel Tetteh Martey, Chairman, GCCI, encouraged sector players to take advantage of the GITW to drive innovation, collaboration and boundless opportunities in their respective fields.
“As we embark on this exciting journey, let us seize the opportunity before us and open our minds and unwavering commitment. Let us build bridges, cultivate lasting relationships and pave the way for a future of sustainable growth and shared success,” he advised.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
