The Singapore Government is considering investing some of its foreign reserves into Ghana’s real-estate sector.
If this becomes a reality, it will provide a big boost to the sector, as demand for housing continues to rise. The housing deficit is now estimated at close to two million.
Ian Lee, the Centre Director of International Enterprise (IE) Singapore – the investment promotion and facilitation agency of the Government of Singapore – said officials of the real-estate arm of Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund have already been to Ghana to assess the sector for potential investment.
He said the next step now depends on finding an investment partner in Ghana.
“The people who came to Ghana are from the real-estate department. Our Sovereign Wealth Fund invests in different sectors including financial assets, real-estate, manufacturing, oil & gas among others. So for the real-estate people, their mandate was to look at Africa; so they are coming here.
“It might take some months before they come (to invest). It all depends on how and who they can find and partner with. Usually, they leverage on financial institutions like the banks and real-estate developers because they don’t know the market well,” he told the Business and Financial Times.
Last year, the Singapore government set up an office in the country for its investment promotion and facilitation agency, IE Singapore, to promote and facilitate investment flow from Singapore into Ghana and other West African states.
According to Mr. Lee, the upcoming Africa Singapore Business Forum (ASBF) on August 27-28 in Singapore illustrates the much-talked about idea of South-South trade, which is seen as the engine of global growth.
He said IE Singapore will take the initiative to organise strategic Business-to-business meetings for Ghanaian businesses that will participate in the upcoming Africa-Singapore Business forum, as a number of Singapore investors are looking for the right partners in Ghana.
Credit: B&FT
