Ghana Is Ideal For Investments

The Founder and Chief Executive of a finance house, African Financial Services (AFS), Mr Claude Scholtz, has recommended Ghana as an ideal place for investments. Mr. Scholtz, who made the recommendation during a visit to the country, said the conclusion was based on AFS extensive study of businesses throughout Africa which established that Ghana was still the perfect place due to its political and economic stability.

AFS is one of the newly-formed non-banking financial institutions which started operating in Ghana since August 2010. It is headquartered in Mauritius.
Scholtz, previously Chief Operating Officer and one of the founders of Bayport Financial Services (Ghanafin), viewed by many as the father of large scale payroll-based commercial lending in Ghana, said he was extremely pleased to be back in Ghana and considered Ghana as his second home.

He said many economists were of the view that the Ghana cedi would appreciate in the next few years, making it an opportune time for dollar investments in the country.

Mr Scholtz said “The potential appreciation of the cedi makes it very attractive for a company such as ours to invest in Ghana and almost takes out the currency risk”.

The founder and CEO also believe that the market in Ghana needed a finance house with strategies like what AFS was pursuing.

“It has been proven that the development of any country's economy is in the hands of the small and medium scale entrepreneur of which Ghana has bountifully,” he stated.

Mr Scholtz said entrepreneurship was not Ghana’s challenge but access to capital, which he said should be worked on with priority.

There are almost one million formally employed people in Ghana most of whom have spouses or other family members working in the entrepreneurial informal sector.

“AFS understands these clients well and want to provide these customers with credit access and the service it deserves,” Mr Scholtz said, adding that his company provided loans to individuals to support them during emergencies, to allow the development of family entrepreneurial activities, support children in education and to purchase life-enhancing assets.

African Financial Services also plans to participate and play a leading role in the burgeoning secondary banking systems such as cell-phone banking, funeral-insurance plans and credit-bureau systems.

This article was originally posted on West Africa Business Communities

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