Investors across the globe have been urged to explore the large pool of opportunities in the West Africa sub-region.

According to Senior Partner and Head of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Ghana, ”‹Mr Vish Ashiagbor, there are so many untapped areas in the business and economic environment in the West Africa Region.

He made the comment at the Standard Bank’s second inter-Africa trade and business conference, opened in Accra.

He said there are prospects in the banking and financial services sector, the telecom and the information and communication technology sector, the infrastructure and energy sectors as well as transport and logistics.

The conference which is running from October 3 - 5, is aimed at Stanbic Bank’s commercial banking clients from across sub-Saharan Africa who are interested in expanding their operations or partnering with businesses in the West Africa Region.

An exciting line up of policy makers and business leaders from West Africa and China are attending the Standard Bank West Africa Trans-regional Conference in Accra.

There are also delegates from Ghana, Nigeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, China, South Africa as well as clients from southern and eastern Africa.

Mr Ashiagbor said the agricultural sector remains one of the key pillars of the economy of most of the countries in the sub-region and have massive opportunities to be linked with the manufacturing sector for diversification, value addition and processing.

However, he said there is the need to accelerate institutional strengthening and regulatory framework to build the necessary confidence.

There is also the need to provide the necessary support for the agriculture sector as the mainstay of the population and the linkage to the processing and value addition.

Mr Ashiagbor also called for the development of the human capacity to develop the relevant skills to speed up development.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, said Ghana is ready to embrace investors in the natural resources sector, especially agro-industry value addition, development of an integrated bauxite industry and for opportunities in the construction industry.

He said the conference presents a good opportunity for Ghana to share its potentials with the participants to enable them make sound investment decisions and to allow the country to be able to create jobs.

Chief Executive of Stanbic Bank Ghana, Mr Alhassan Andani, said there are vast potentials to explore in the various markets within the sub-region for investors interested in expanding their operations or partnering with businesses in the West Africa Region across a range of sectors such as retail, infrastructure, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and information technology.

The West African conference builds on the success of the inaugural summit held in Kenya in April, where Standard Bank hosted clients from Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and Kenya, and participants were given an overview of East African economies and explored business opportunities and partnerships in the Region.