CCA President and CEO Kicks Off West Africa Tour in Ghana

Florie Liser visited Ghana yesterday in her first trip to West Africa as Corporate Council on Africa's (CCA) President and CEO. Ms. Liser attended meetings with a range of government and private sector stakeholders supportive of increased U.S.-Ghana and U.S.-Africa trade, investment and business engagement including the new Ghanaian Minister of Trade and Industry, the Honorable Alan Kyerematen.Ms. Liser’s first meeting was with Yoofi Grant, CEO Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC). Ms. Liser was pleased to learn that there will be a delegation of about 40 Ghanaian businesses at CCA's 11th U.S.-Africa Business Summit to be held in Washington, DC on June 13-16, 2017 during which there will be a "Doing Business in Ghana" session. They also discussed plans of the new Ghanaian administration under President Akufo-Addo to incentivize more FDI into Ghana while improving the regulatory environment for U.S. and other foreign companies as well as local firms to do business in Ghana. CCA and GIPC have an MOU which they agreed they would update to determine how best to collaborate on key U.S-Ghana business issues moving forward.Ms. Liser then had a roundtable with CCA member companies and U.S. businesses, including Cummings and EAI Information Systems, during which they shared with her some of the key challenges they faced doing business and investing in Ghana.In her meetings with U.S. Embassy Officials in Ghana including Ambassador Robert Jackson, the U.S. Economic Counselor, Senior Foreign Commercial Service Officer, and officials of USAID, Ms. Liser learned of key issues on which CCA could advocate, including concerns about corruption, sanctity of contracts, and the need to support the Trade Africa initiative which focuses on removing barriers to Africa's regional and global trade, including with the United States.In her meeting with new Ghanaian Minister of Trade and Industry, the Honorable Alan Kyerematen, and his two deputies, there was a vibrant discussion on efforts to enhance Ghana's export of value added products to the U.S. under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), to incentivize manufacturing and job creation in key sectors, and to make the reforms needed to attract investment to Ghana.Minister Kyerematen will be part of Ghana's high-level delegation to CCA's U.S.-Africa Business Summit in June.Ms. Liser leaves for meetings in Nigeria over the next few days with both the public and private sectors.