September 6, 2026
Policy
Investor Opportunities Fact Sheet 2026: The Case for Ghana's Economic Zones
By African Economic Zones Chamber
The African Economic Zones Chamber has published the first edition of the Investor Opportunities Fact Sheet (IOFS™) — a data book built for investors, developers and policy makers weighing an African, and specifically a Ghanaian, industrial location.
Edition 001 opens with the continental picture: 232 special economic zones mapped across 43 countries, $70bn in foreign direct investment into Africa in 2025, and a single AfCFTA market of 1.4 billion consumers. It then narrows to Ghana, where registered FDI reached $2.61bn in 2025 - four times the 2024 figure - against a backdrop of 5.8% GDP growth, inflation down to 3.3% and a free zones programme approaching $1bn in annual export earnings after thirty years of operation.
The fact sheet sets out the incentive stack available to a free zone enterprise (zero corporate tax for the first ten years, full foreign ownership, duty-free imports on plant and materials), maps the serviced industrial land already available across the Accra-Tema coastal belt, the Western Region energy corridor and the Kumasi-Boankra inland route, and names eight priority sectors - from cocoa and agro-processing to pharmaceuticals, automotive components and industrial power - each tied to a live policy anchor or piece of infrastructure.
At its centre is the Chamber's Investor Opportunities Framework: five questions - reach, cost, readiness, people and certainty - that the Chamber uses to test whether a zone project actually works, plus a scorecard investors can take into a site visit. The book also states the risks plainly: power reliability, an incentive regime under active review, and a dedicated Special Economic Zones Bill that is still in drafting.
This edition is published for the Chamber's Policy Roundtable 2026, which brought together the Vice President of Ghana, the Minister for Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, the Ghana Free Zones Authority, the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority and development partners including the EU, UNIDO and UNDP to settle the terms on which Ghana's next generation of economic zones will be built.
Download the full fact sheet below, or write to africa.office@economiczoneschamber.com about zone listings, sponsorship or participation in future editions of the Policy Roundtable.
Edition 001 opens with the continental picture: 232 special economic zones mapped across 43 countries, $70bn in foreign direct investment into Africa in 2025, and a single AfCFTA market of 1.4 billion consumers. It then narrows to Ghana, where registered FDI reached $2.61bn in 2025 - four times the 2024 figure - against a backdrop of 5.8% GDP growth, inflation down to 3.3% and a free zones programme approaching $1bn in annual export earnings after thirty years of operation.
The fact sheet sets out the incentive stack available to a free zone enterprise (zero corporate tax for the first ten years, full foreign ownership, duty-free imports on plant and materials), maps the serviced industrial land already available across the Accra-Tema coastal belt, the Western Region energy corridor and the Kumasi-Boankra inland route, and names eight priority sectors - from cocoa and agro-processing to pharmaceuticals, automotive components and industrial power - each tied to a live policy anchor or piece of infrastructure.
At its centre is the Chamber's Investor Opportunities Framework: five questions - reach, cost, readiness, people and certainty - that the Chamber uses to test whether a zone project actually works, plus a scorecard investors can take into a site visit. The book also states the risks plainly: power reliability, an incentive regime under active review, and a dedicated Special Economic Zones Bill that is still in drafting.
This edition is published for the Chamber's Policy Roundtable 2026, which brought together the Vice President of Ghana, the Minister for Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, the Ghana Free Zones Authority, the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority and development partners including the EU, UNIDO and UNDP to settle the terms on which Ghana's next generation of economic zones will be built.
Download the full fact sheet below, or write to africa.office@economiczoneschamber.com about zone listings, sponsorship or participation in future editions of the Policy Roundtable.
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IOFS 2026 Investor Opportunities Fact Sheet.pdf
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