The Board Chairman of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Akwasi Oppong Fosu, has declared the Western Region as Ghana’s next major industrial growth pool, calling for a decisive shift from resource extraction to value addition, execution and shared prosperity.
Speaking at the Western Regional Investment Roadshow under the Investment Opportunity Mapping Project (IOMP), Mr Oppong Fosu said the gathering was deliberately designed to go beyond ceremony and rhetoric, describing it as a practical platform to connect policy to production and capital to regional resources in ways that would yield measurable economic outcomes.
He noted that under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama, Ghana had embraced a development model anchored on the principle that industrial growth must be inclusive and geographically balanced.
It was from this conviction, he explained, that the IOMP was conceived to systematically identify, profile and promote bankable investment-ready opportunities across all regions of the country.
According to him, GIPC, working with strategic partners, had successfully rolled out similar investment roadshows in the Volta, Oti and Central regions, over the past year, with the Western Region now taking centre stage as the initiative expands nationwide.
“This journey will continue to the remaining regions because every region matters, every district counts and every community has a role to play in Ghana’s development story,” Mr. Oppong Fosu stressed.
He described the Western Region as one of Ghana’s most resource-endowed areas, citing its long-standing contribution to national revenue, exports and industrial activity.
The region, he said, boasts vast mineral, forest and marine resources, strong agricultural potential in cocoa, oil palm, rubber and coconut, growing prospects in tourism and the blue economy and a strategic coastline anchored by the Port of Takoradi as a critical logistics and industrial gateway.
Despite these advantages, the GIPC Board Chairman observed that the region’s economy remained largely under-industrialised, with limited value addition and a heavy dependence on extraction.
He revealed that between 1991 and 2025, the Western Region attracted approximately US$10.83 billion in investment across 296 projects, representing just over 20 per cent of total investments nationwide, an indication, he said, of significant headroom for deeper and more transformative investments.
Mr. Oppong Fosu explained that the strategic shift being championed under the IOMP prioritises investments that promote industrialization, downstream processing, agro-industrial expansion, mining-linked value chains, sustainable job creation for the youth and export-oriented and import-substitution industries.
Key anchor opportunities identified for the region include agro-processing in oil palm, rubber and cocoa; mining-linked industrial development in bauxite and limestone; energy-enabled manufacturing; port-centric logistics; fisheries and aquaculture infrastructure; sustainable forestry; and industrial services supporting construction, gas and manufacturing.
“These are not abstract ideas. They are investment-ready platforms requiring capital, technology, skills and strong partnerships,” he said.
He urged traditional authorities and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to take ownership of the investment agenda, stressing that regional investment ultimately translates into community development.
He assured investors that GIPC would actively handhold strategic investments, align investors with MMDAs and traditional authorities and prioritise projects that deliver jobs, exports, skills transfer and local value.
“The Western Region is not being presented today as a promise. It is being positioned as a platform for execution,” Mr. Oppong Fosu added.
Following his address, the Western Regional Minister, Mr. Joseph Nelson, welcomed participants to what he described as a strategic turning point for the region’s development, rather than a routine investment roadshow.
Addressing investors, development partners and government officials, Mr. Nelson said the event was a call to action aimed at translating promise into productivity and potential into prosperity. He commended GIPC for deliberately selecting the Western Region as a focal point for investment promotion and for providing technical backstopping through its regional office to strengthen local investment capacity.
He explained that the collaboration had enabled MMDAs to refine their investment profiles, improve bankability and better package viable projects for promotion.
The Regional Minister emphasised that natural resources alone do not guarantee prosperity, stressing the need for strong partnerships, infrastructure, skills development and value chains to convert the region’s endowments into competitive industries and long-term economic value.
Mr Nelson outlined the Western Regional Coordinating Council’s efforts to strengthen the investment ecosystem, including the rebranding and revitalisation of the Western Regional Investment and Business Centre as an open, investor-focused hub to facilitate access to information, coordinate regulatory processes and link investors to bankable projects.
In a notable appeal, he also called for support for a proposed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) project at the Takoradi Hospital, describing it as both a social intervention and a strategic investment in human capital and regional competitiveness.
As the roadshow concluded, both leaders underscored the need for commitment, collaboration and decisive action to reposition the Western Region not just as a resource-rich area, but as a coordinated, industrial and investment-ready hub for Ghana’s next phase of growth.
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