Mahama Invites Global Investors to Scale Up in Ghana
President Mahama Invites Global Investors to Scale Up in Ghana’s Agriculture and Industry
President John Dramani Mahama has put out a direct call to global investors, urging them to increase their footprint in Ghana’s economy and he’s making the case that the country’s potential goes well beyond its own borders.
Addressing the US-Ghana Presidential Roundtable on Wednesday, September 23, Mahama laid out what makes Ghana attractive on paper a country rich in cocoa, gold, manganese, and a wide range of other commodities, with farmers growing cashew nuts, shea fruits, vegetables, and grains.
But he was quick to point out the gap between that potential and what’s actually happening on the ground. Too much of what Ghana produces still leaves the country in raw form, while Ghana turns around and imports finished products it could increasingly be making at home.
For Mahama, that pattern needs to change if the country is serious about creating enough jobs and building stronger local businesses.
He used cocoa to illustrate the point most directly. Ghana ranks among the world’s leading cocoa producers, but Mahama argued that simply exporting raw beans can’t be where the ambition stops.
Opportunities exist in cocoa processing, cashew, shea, horticulture, grains, poultry, livestock, and food manufacturing, he said.
His reasoning was straightforward processing more of what farmers grow domestically creates a real market for those farmers, generates work for processors, and opens up business for suppliers, transporters, and everyone else along the value chain. It’s not just about farming more; it’s about building an entire ecosystem around what’s already being produced.
Mahama made a particular point of encouraging investors to think past Ghana’s own population when weighing opportunities. For an investor, Ghana’s domestic market is only one part of the opportunity. The African Continental Free Trade Area is bringing together a continental market of more than 1.4 billion people, and this secretariat is headquartered in Accra, he said.
His message was direct a company setting up production in Ghana shouldn’t limit its thinking to Ghana’s 34 million people. Instead, it should be looking at opportunities across West Africa and the wider continent as the African Continental Free Trade Area continues rolling out.
Mahama also connected this investment pitch to Ghana’s upcoming role on the continental stage. With the country preparing to take over the African Union chairmanship, he said Ghana intends to use that platform to push forward Africa’s work on infrastructure, industrialisation, regional integration, and the broader implementation of the free trade area.
He noted that genuine regional integration will require real infrastructure investment roads, ports, reliable energy, digital connectivity, and more efficient borders all areas where he believes American businesses hold a real comparative advantage.
Tying it all together, Mahama framed Ghana’s 2027 AU responsibility as a genuine opportunity to advance a broader African economic agenda, one where governments create the right conditions for growth. He described it as the beginning of a new chapter in Ghana-United States economic relations, built around this shared opportunity.
