Doing business with Norway

Promoting Norwegian commercial interests and contributing to private sector development in Ghana is a key task for the Embassy.

Our main focus is to grow high-value sustainable ocean industries to energize and feed the world. More than 50 Norwegian owned, affiliated or partly owned companies currently operate in Ghana, in close cooperation with Ghanaian partners and joint ventures.

The main areas of interest are oil and gas exploration and production, oil service, renewable energy, agricultural development, aquaculture development, seafood, fisheries, and maritime sector in general.

Assisting Norwegian businesses

The Embassy provides timely business intelligence and advisory services by offering information on key policies, public programmes and regulations such as local content provisions. We can also share analysis on political, social, cultural developments influencing business decisions and activities in Ghana.

The Embassy also:

• Maintains an informal voluntary list of Norwegian companies active in Ghana and creates platforms for the Norwegian business community in Ghana to meet and interact among themselves and with Ghanaian stakeholders.
• Assists visits to Ghana by Norwegian business delegations and institutions, and offer similar assistance to Ghanaian delegations and officials going on visits to Norway.
• Protects and promotes the unique and positive branding Norway and Norwegian companies have earned over the years.
• Promotes and offers advice on corporate social responsibility (CSR), the UN guiding principles and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (“Responsible Business”).
• Encourages and can facilitate the creation of thematic clusters based on Norwegian experiences (for example in maritime sector, oil and gas, agriculture).

Improving framework conditions for doing business in Ghana
Good governance is crucial to private sector development. Norway provides capacity building in key state sectors in Ghana through “Oil for Development” and “Fish for Development” (currently under development), and follows up with regular political dialogue on the implementation of the improved policies and regulations.

Access to affordable finance is a key challenge. The Embassy cooperates closely with Norfund, Norway’s Development Finance Institution. They established a regional office in Ghana in 2018 to offer expertise and access to capital. Norfund is currently seeking to build sustainable businesses in Ghana’s agriculture sector including aquaculture.

The Embassy regularly collates experiences from Norwegian companies operating in Ghana and actively engages in political dialogue with Government of Ghana and relevant partners to improve the environment for doing business.

The Embassy also shares Norwegian experiences and engages on structural topics such as decent work, social dialogue, gender, women in the work force, women in management/leadership positions.

The Embassy works closely with Germany and Ghana as part of the G20 Compact with Africa, including at highest political level, to help build framework conditions in Ghana that will position Ghana and the African continent as attractive investment destinations.

A memorandum of understanding with Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Ghana (AHK) has been signed giving Norwegian companies access to AKH’s extensive support services, joint events, joint surveys of main impediments to doing business in Ghana and jointly conveying results and trends to relevant government partners.

Multilateral organisations play an important role in developing and maintaining standards, rules and an environment that is conducive to private sector development. Most of Norway’s support for private sector development is therefore channelled through multilateral organisations. Norway will actively use these aid investments benefiting Ghana channelled via the United Nations family and the World Bank, IMF, IFC and other global initiatives and regional organisations/development banks (AfDB etc) to improve framework conditions.

The Embassy has close continuous dialogue and cooperation especially with Denmark’s embassy in Accra and Sweden’s embassy in Abuja as part of our strong tradition of Nordic cooperation.

Contact details:

Switchboard: +233 (0)302744300
Embassy email: emb.accra@mfa.no
Norfund: Head of office: Naana Winful Fynn www.norfund.no/ghana/
Norad: Norad.no  

Mr Robert Hovde, Counsellor
Mr Fred Pappoe, Senior Adviser, Private Sector and Political Analysis