Under the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act, 2013 (Act 865), any enterprise in which there is foreign participation is required to register with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC). Where the company is wholly owned by non-Ghanaians, there is a minimum capital requirement of US$500,000; where the company is partly owned by f non-Ghanaians the minimum capital requirement is US$250,000; and where the company is owned by non-Ghanaians and is to go into trading activities, a mimimum capital requirement of US$1,000,000.
Companies registered under the GIPC Act, are guaranteed:
- unconditional transferability of dividends or net profits attributable to investment;
- immigration quota of four expatriates, depending on the level of investment;
- personal remittance quota for the expatriates, to the level of the expatriate’s total official wage;
- payments in respect of servicing foreign loans, fees and charges;
- remittance of proceeds (net of all taxes and other obligations) in the event of sale or liquidation of the enterprise or any interest attributable to the investment;
- incentives in the form of concessionary duty when goods are imported into Ghana;
- application of UNCITRAL arbitration rules or the rules of any forum of the investor’s choice (within the framework of any bilateral or multilateral agreement on investment protection) in the event of a dispute with the Government, among others.