The remaining nine representing 23.08 per cent were joint ventures between Ghanaians and foreign partners valued at $ 85.88 million, which was 34.42 per cent of the total estimated value of projects registered.

Mrs Mawuena Trebarh, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, in the quarterly report said the results from investments recorded for the quarter showed a significant increase compared to the corresponding quarter of 2015 of more than 200 per cent in the local component of the total estimated value of registered projects for the quarter.

She said this showed that the awareness creation of opportunities available to investors, both local and foreign has been yielding results.   The sectoral composition of the new projects is agriculture, building and construction, general trading, manufacturing, services and tourism.  The said being an election year also, results of investments recorded so far by the Centre has been no different from the trend realised in   the past years of elections.

The CEO said the total estimated value of these projects amounted to $248.89 million and the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) component of the estimated value of registered projects was $157.57 million and the local component amounted to $91.92 million   “The total initial capital transfers for the newly registered    projects during the quarter amounted to $ 17.31 million and a total of 2,487 jobs were created from the total projects registered   during the quarter,” she added.

She said 2,062 representing 82.91 per cent jobs were created for Ghanaians, while 425; representing 17.09 per cent was created for expatriates. The first quarter also recorded a total of 188 project renewals.  China, with seven projects, topped the list of countries with the highest number of registered projects and with $65.50 million as the FDI value of the investments, The Netherlands topped the list of countries with the largest value of investments registered during the quarter.