Ghana - Trade and Investment Gateway Project (GHATIG)

The objective of the Trade and Investment Gateway Project for Ghana is to attract a critical mass of export oriented investors to Ghana to accelerate export-led growth and to facilitate trade. This is a project performance assessment report by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), to ensure the integrity of the Bank's self-evaluation process and to verify that the Bank's work is producing the expected results, and to help develop improved directions, policies, and procedures through the dissemination of lessons drawn from experience. Findings indicate that the project outcome was deemed moderately satisfactory. The relevance of the objectives is rated as substantial, but the relevance of the design was modest. The achievement of the development objectives of attracting export-oriented investment and facilitating trade was substantial. Bank performance is rated moderately unsatisfactory, mainly reflecting the mixed quality at entry and quality of supervision. Borrower performance is rated moderately satisfactory, both for the government and the implementing agencies. The assessment deduced that: 1) 'Free Zones' are more likely to be inefficient where fiscal incentives are nationwide; 2) effective market research and flexible project design are crucial elements for the success of public-private partnership projects; and 3) institutional reforms and trade logistics improvement can play a significant role in facilitating trade.