Investigation into Strategies for Attracting Non-Oil-Related Non-Extractive Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Developing Countries: The Case of Ghana.

Bridget Awuah 89 PAGES (19009 WORDS) Economics Thesis

ABSTRACT As at 2008, the much awaited oil find in Ghana had been realized, and as a natural phenomenon much attention had been shifted to the industrial sector specifically the mining segment. Till date many are attracted to the industrial sector specifically the mining segment due to its acclaimed high returns and much FDI inflow. The Ghana Statistical Service 2010 report showed that Ghana had increased its income by 60% to over US$44 billion coupled with a growth rate of 14%. However, theses figures did not commensurate the situation on ground and only pointed out that the oil find had pushed up the economy and as a result the high FDI inflows into the oil sector. Ghana as a country has no much FDI inflows into the Non-oil and Non-extractive sectors which proves to be worrying since it posses many issues of the underdevelopment of these sectors as well as their inability to attract much FDI inflows. Therefore, this paper sought out to investigate into strategies that could be adopted to attract more Non-extractive FDI for the attainment of economic growth. In doing so the 2 main institutions in charge of the Non-oil FDI inflows were investigated for data on FDI inflows as well as for the purpose of observing organizational behavior and strategies used. Interviews were conducted purposefully in order to ascertain expert opinions on the topic, research question and research objectives in order for a comprehensive analysis to be drawn. In the end it was clear that indeed Ghana had low Non-extractive FDI inflows which showed that those sectors were not attractive due to market failures and lack of investments by both the government and locals.