This year’s edition of the Accra SDGs Investment Fair starts today, Tuesday, August 24, through to Thursday, August 26, 2021. The Fair aims to help develop a sustainable network for post-COVID-19 strategies that will support the government’s vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.
The three-day event will bring together High-Level Government Officials, Community Facilitators, Investors, Civil Society Organizations, Entrepreneurs, Knowledge Institutions and other stakeholders. Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is expected to give the keynote address on the theme: ‘The Decade of Action: Accelerating Recovery and Revitalization’.
The Fair will focus most of its discussions on the CARES program and Ghana’s recovery strategy. One of the key areas for discussion is Leveraging public and private innovative digital solutions to improve quality and efficiency of services. It will also discuss how to incentivize private sector participation in the implementation of the CARES Program. Another key focus of the Fair is strengthening the legal and regulatory environment to support realization of the “Obaatanpa” Program.
This year’s Fair will feature 15 different speakers who will be speaking on 11 topics. Aside the CARES program, the Fair will discuss vaccine nationalism and the lessons for African Leaders and the business community.
Other Focus Areas
Also, it will discuss Business Opportunities for MSMEs in the Pandemic Era. Under this session, the focus will be on Business Continuity and Building Resilience in the Era of the Pandemic. There will also be discussions on the Impact of Digitalization On Businesses and Financiers.
The Ministry of Finance highlighted in the synopsis that the impact of digitalization on businesses and financiers may differ. However, it should positively influence businesses and financiers in areas of increased revenue and decreased operating costs. Digitization should also lead to improved customer satisfaction, lowered fragmentation, optimized operations, among others.
Ghana’s digitalization agenda has over the past years received enormous support at the highest level. Meanwhile, lessons from the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has facilitated the realization of the vital role it plays in driving and sustaining long-term economic growth.
Furthermore, the Fair will discuss the role of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Additionally, the Fair will discuss the role of the Private Sector in Vaccine Development. It will also touch on heath, wellbeing and Public-Private Partnerships in financing pandemic preparedness strategies.
Recovery Strategies
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the response capacities of countries and highlighted the need to do better in the future. As such, countries are struggling to respond to the pandemic and formulate their COVID-19 exit and recovery strategies to emerge stronger.
To recover and build back better, there is a general consensus that an integrated approach rather than a stream of single initiatives is required. Thus, a policy framework that connects all the different parts of the system and provides an aligned plan of action that everyone can buy into and support.
The government of Ghana realizing this, seeks to partner with the private sector to build a more resilient economy. To this end, the bulk of the GH¢100 billion Ghana CARES program, GH¢70 billion, is expected to come from the private sector. This is especially, through Foreign Direct Investments and Public Private Partnerships.
The CARES program provides a mechanism to consolidate private sector investment into productive sectors of the economy to create a dynamic regional economy for Ghana. Specific measures to be implemented include Business and Regulatory Reforms (BRR), digitization to improve the quality and transparency of public service delivery. Others include the expansion of access to finance for Ghanaian businesses, skills training and retraining, support to SMEs, and energy sector reform.
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