The US-Africa Business Centre has released its maiden Investor Confidence Indicator for Africa (ICIFA) in Washington, ranking Ghana among the best countries in Africa in terms of convenience of doing business.

Ghana’s overall score was 59.4 per cent which placed it in the first quartile of overall performers in Africa.

The report, which was released on June 12, is a tool created to inform investment destination choices and influence policy making.

The ICIFA uses 12 international evaluations to create a composite score for each nation that measures the ease of doing business there.

Factors that determine a nation's score include security, development, and good governance grounded in the rule of law, as well as media freedom, and human development.

In an address to launch the report, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, urged US companies to take advantage of the opportunities Ghana had to offer to invest in the country.

He further assured investors of government’s commitment to improve the ease of doing business in Ghana, adding, “Our goal is to make Ghana the best place to do business on the continent and in that light, we have taken bold regulatory reforms to improve the ease of doing business.”

Report objective

"The Investor Confidence Indicator for Africa can be a useful tool for government and industry leaders alike as they make policy and investment decisions that drive economic growth across the continent and here in the United States," the president of the US-Africa Business Centre, Scott Eisner, said, adding, "The factors that foster good government and a strong society are the same that create a positive investment climate for businesses."

The scoring

The ICIFA assigns an overall score to each nation based on its performance in 12 bellwether international evaluations on essentialities for promoting security, development and good governance rooted in the rule of law – the cornerstones of a strong society and vibrant business environment. Based on that aggregate score, the indicator assigns colour codes reflecting each country’s position relative to one another – dark green reflects those countries that place in the top quartile of overall performers in Africa; light green those in the second quartile; yellow those in the third quartile and red those in the fourth quartile.

In a related development, the US-Africa Business Centre also released its policy recommendations for the Trump administration on how to advance the US-Africa trade relationship.

The recommendations include enhancing US-Africa bilateral and regional engagements; improving the ease of doing business for US companies; focusing on infrastructure; boosting Africa's digital transformation; adding value to Africa's agricultural sector and advancing trade facilitation and customs modernisation.