INFRASTRUCTURE
Opportunities for industrial and production infrastructure
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TOPGUIDE l 2016
s part of its policy to improve productive infrastructure in the country, the government of Ghana (GoG) has set up the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) to foster investment in the sector. GIIF is presenting projects under its Ghana Industrial Development Initiative (GIDI) programme, to enable investors to take advantage of emerging opportunities. Projects under the GIDI scheme consist of investments in industries and the infrastructure that is necessary to operate these industries. The idea is to ensure that the offtake capacity of the projects can pay for the investment in the infrastructure required to support any specific project or industry. While the aluminium industry is of immediate interest, industrial infrastructure including railways, access roads, port developments, transportation distribution hubs, industrial parks or estates (including agro-processing plantations), and baseload power generation, is being promoted under GIDI. GIIF is therefore sounding out investors to establish market interest in the commercial opportunities presented.
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Industrial infrastructure investments GIIF is now promoting GIDI as its flagship program to stimulate development of both commercial infrastructure and industries in partnership with private sector investors. It is anticipated that investment in power generation, railways, roads, and port services, etc., in direct coordination with industrial projects, will contribute to growth and expansion of the economy in a win-win for investors and the country. The GIDI programme is also responding to keen investor interest in industrial minerals and infrastructure. A number of investors have approached Ghana’s authorities with proposals and ideas to partner Ghana in exploring opportunities in infrastructure and industrial minerals processing. There is special interest to integrate the existing Volta Aluminium Company Ltd (Valco) smelter with mining
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through processing bauxite with salt and limestone into alumina. In view of their linkages to infrastructure and the potential multiplier impact on the economy (including power, railways, roads, industrial parks, industrial salt, exports, aluminium products, steel products, etc.), GIIF is promoting industrial investments linked to commercial private sector-led projects in infrastructure. This includes both pure private sector as well as public private partnership (PPP)-type industrial enclaves as the key components of the GIDI programme. To maximise both the potential and government support for the private sector, most projects will be in bundles with the off-take capacity of industries linked with on-going government or private sector-led infrastructure projects. For instance, a bundle may consist of industrial parks or estates as hubs contiguous to clustered mineral locations or distribution staging platforms where access to
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