The “SDG Investment Platform” has been launched to provide market intelligence on investment opportunities in Ghana and beyond.

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), joined the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) SDGs Impact, and Global Investor for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance, to launch the platform.

A statement copied the Ghana News Agency, said the soft-launch event officially set in motion UNDP’s enterprising initiative to accelerate SDG-aligned investments in the country.

The platform has also been identified as "an exciting prospect to assuage GIPC’s efforts in raising 100 billion cedis through investments, as envisaged in the country’s Coronavirus Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises Programme (Ghana CARES)".

The launch in Ghana, was organised in concurrence with the global launch at the margin of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Forum on Financing for Development and the SDG Investment Fair.

The statement said the SDG Investment Platform offered insight, data, and impact measurement tools to both local and foreign investors, with the purpose of fast-tracking attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It said the SDG investor Map, a key feature of the platform, provided market intelligence for private sector investors, by translating country-level SDG gaps and priorities into investment opportunities.

Speaking at the event, Mr Yofi Grant, Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, said the Investment Platform aligned with the Centre’s objective to identify and promote investment opportunities in the country.

“UNDP’s market intelligence tool is closely aligned with the mandate of GIPC. The SDG Investor Map is a concrete and comprehensive set of information that helps us to identify investment opportunities that we can promote in support of the Government’s vision," he said.

“The implementation of the SDG Investor Map follows exactly the approach we take at GIPC. This will support our efforts in facilitating an attractive investment framework and advocating for investors’ concerns in policymaking. ”

Mr Grant said the GIPC would continue working with UNDP to facilitate sector focused investments, and that, the Centre counted on the power of the SDG Investor Platform to make Ghanaian opportunities available to international audiences.

The statement said the standardised eight-step approach of the investor map would ensure that the business community was directed to country-specific investment prospects based on policy priorities, developmental needs, and investment potential as it highlighted the opportunities and their expected SDG-impact.

“This valuable investor toolkit also gives intel on local market conditions, in addition to a gross evaluation of the entrepreneurial environment,” he said.

“With Ghana’s SDG financing gap estimated at $43 billion per year, the investment platform avails the means to correct the shortfalls, and create a conducive investment climate to drive the country’s development agenda.”

It said the SDG Investor Map had already pointed out Investment Opportunty Areas (IOAs) within five identified priority sectors in Ghana, namely; Agriculture, Infrastructure, Communications, Healthcare and Consumer Goods, where the private sector could explore.

It said notable among the IOAs were: construction of affordable housing, provision of internet hotspots for rural areas, digitalisation of healthacare delivery, and scaling up aquaculture.

Silke Hollander, the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Ghana, said, “We will go deeper in each of the five sectors so that we go beyond the provision of market and sector intelligence to actual money invested in Ghana. It is our hope, especially in this Decade of Action, that the SDG Investor Maps will accelerate investments needed to progress towards the achievement of the 2030 goals.”

The statement said the Platform outlined actionable frameworks for investors to leverage IOAs, through assessment of business environment, market demand, and possible sources of capital or support.

The SDG Investor Platform can be accessed via sdginvestorplatform.undp.org.