President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that Ghana’s foreign direct investment (FDI) increased sharply from $624 million in 2024 to $2.62 billion in 2025, expressing optimism that inflows will exceed $3 billion in 2026.
He attributed the improvement to macroeconomic stability, favourable economic indicators and an enabling environment for investment, which he said were helping to restore investor confidence in the country.
“From 2024 to 2025, there’s a steep increase in foreign direct investment from $624 million to $2.62 billion in one year,” President Mahama said.
He added that the outlook for the current year remained positive, with the government expecting further growth in investment inflows.
“And we’re expecting that, the way things are going, we should see FDI in excess of $3 billion in 2026,” he stated.
The President’s projection comes as his administration seeks to consolidate economic gains and strengthen Ghana’s attractiveness as an investment destination.
He also highlighted efforts to reform the management of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), describing their financial and operational challenges as a longstanding burden on the economy.
According to him, political transitions have often resulted in changes in the leadership of state-owned enterprises, with appointments sometimes made without sufficient consideration for merit.
“Often, when government changes, people are sent to state-owned enterprises, the management is changed, new people come and, sometimes whoever comes, it depends on, sometimes it doesn’t depend on merit, and so they mismanage the state-owned enterprises and incur debt,” he explained.
President Mahama warned that the financial difficulties of these enterprises ultimately have implications for government finances because the state is often their sole shareholder.
“But remember that those debts are always contingent liabilities on the government because the government, in most cases, is the 100% owner of these enterprises,” he said.
He said the government had therefore initiated measures to turn around the fortunes of state-owned enterprises, including promoting continuity in leadership where performance justified it.
At the first State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) programme under his administration, the President said he met with newly appointed heads of state enterprises and outlined his expectations for improved management.
He noted that some existing managers had been retained because of their performance, stressing that changes in political leadership should not automatically lead to changes in institutional management.
“Some of them who were doing a good job, we retained them, we didn’t change them because we thought that we shouldn’t change people just because government has changed from one party to the other,” he said.
“They’re all Ghanaians. And so I gave them their marching orders.”
President Mahama expressed satisfaction with the progress made since the engagement, pointing to what he described as a significant improvement in the management of state-owned enterprises.
“And I’m happy to say that when we did the SIGA forum a few months ago, there’s been a wonderful turnaround in management of the state,” he said.
The government has identified improved corporate governance, financial discipline and professional management of state-owned enterprises as important elements of its broader economic recovery efforts.
