As cooperation between Guyana and Ghana intensifies, a small private sector team from Ghana travelled to Guyana with the intention of scoping out opportunities for partnerships and investments across several local sectors.
This was related to the News Room on Wednesday by Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo. The News Room understands that this Ghanian team will return to Guyana in a matter of weeks with a much larger Ghanaian delegation comprising both government officials and members of the private sector.
“… There is alot of interest in Guyana experienced by the private sector group that’s coming in and also a fairly decent amount of capital that these companies that are coming are coming with,” the Vice President explained.
Though there has been much interest in Guyana’s nascent oil and gas sector, Dr. Jagdeo said that these private sector stakeholders are also interested in Guyana’s agriculture, housing development, education and healthcare.
The team that travelled to Guyana represented several groups from Ghana including West Coast Gas Ghana Limited, a West African oil and gas company. During their time in Guyana, the advance team met with President Dr. Irfaan Ali, Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, the Vice President and several other Ministers of the Government.
The Office of the President reported that the Ghanaians held numerous discussions with government ministries, agencies and local private sector agencies. And Dr. Jagdeo said that fruitful partnerships are pending.
“The reason why they are more suited for Guyana is because they are small and medium scale companies, so they would find more synergies with our small and medium scale companies,” Dr. Jagdeo explained to the News Room.
This visit follows the Vice President’s own visit to Ghana. Importantly, Ghanian officials are expected to help support the creation of Guyana Local Content policy and the revision of the Sovereign Wealth Fund that deals with the management of oil revenues.
Additionally, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo will participate in the major oil and gas conference billed for early next year. The West African country’s Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia is also expected to visit Guyana along with a team of private sector personnel.
Guyana and Ghana established diplomatic relations on May 14, 1979.
Both Guyana and Ghana are oil-producing nations and while oil was found in commercial quantities in Guyana in 2015, the “black gold” was discovered offshore in the progressive African nation close to five decades ago.
