We see how Fabrimetal Ghana’s success story demonstrates why Ghana is a land of fantastic business opportunities.

Fabrimetal Ghana is part of the MMD Group, one of seven manufacturing facilities across Africa alongside facilities in the DRC, Angola, Rwanda, Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal.

Fabrimetal started operation in 2016 in the commercial production of rebars and our focus was to produce international quality iron rebars in Ghana which are largely imported into the country. Our product was aimed to be an import substitute with emphasis on ability to produce international quality in Ghana,” explains Rohit Raj, Managing Director of Fabrimetal Ghana. “Every product we produce is verified for international quality standards by a reputable third-party agency – Bureau Veritas.”

The Fabrimetal team feels that Ghana is the perfect place to do this. The country benefits from abundant natural resources and human capital. As well as plentiful natural resources such as gold and crude oil, Ghana also supplies significant amounts of agricultural produce such as cocoa, wood, cashew, shea, banana, and more to the rest of the world.

Talking with Raj it is clear he is evangelical about Ghana’s potential as a business hub.

“Ghana has been a focus country for us. We have tremendous faith in the country and its growth prospects” Team Fabrimetal says. “There’s lots of stability & the country’s government is making a sustained investment in the infrastructure.”

Raj makes a valid point that Ghana has shown itself to be the most peaceful country in the West African Sub-Region, as well as a beacon of democracy for Africa. Ghana has enjoyed over a quarter of a century of uninterrupted democratic government with well-developed governmental, economic and social structures.

As well as having a glorious history, Ghana is continuing to build on that heritage, undergoing continuous improvements across its infrastructure base. The Ghana Standards Authority has made itself the national quality hub, leading the country’s infrastructure development while backed by international support from as far afield as Switzerland’s government and UNIDO testing laboratories.

A Nation Offering International Quality

This infrastructure provides the backbone for Ghana’s strong manufacturing base, alongside several key agricultural raw materials as well as processed and finished products.

Ghana is well-known for being the business trading hub of the West African Sub-Region, and several international brands and globally accredited certification bodies are established here, using it as a gateway for entry into the rest of the sub-regional market.

The continuous focus on quality & improvement is a huge part of Fabrimetal Ghana’s story and identity.

“Quality has been a hallmark of our journey since inception,” Raj says. “We’ve acquired a very positive image as producers of quality steel. We’re providing international quality standards to the local market, and I believe that is our key competitive advantage.”

In pushing that vision of quality, Fabrimetal Ghana is also contributing to the growing prosperity of the economy.

“We have a product which has impacted and helped the economy. We employ over 800 people and in this five-year journey, we’ve expanded into other products,” The team explains. “We have doubled our capacity “We now produce other steel products like angles and channels using very modern technology in our scrap processing equipment, which helps us to improve our efficiency & has a very positive impact on the environment.”

That promising performance is reflected across Ghana. The country’s economy has been strengthened by twenty-five years of sound economic management and a competitive business environment. Ghana’s economic indicators have been robust through recent years, with the economy withstand external shocks such as falling prices of its main export products on the international market.

Again, this robustness is reflected in Fabrimetal Ghana’s own story as it has overcome its own challenges.

We are dependent on the availability of local iron scrap as raw material. Any change in the supplies of raw material impacts our production,” Raj admits. “We have seen global supply chain issues over the last 12-to-14 months. Our cost of production has gone very high. With regards to raw material, the supply of chemicals we need has suffered in quantity and the timing for receiving it, impacting the business. So, we are looking at strategies to ensure smooth & continuous production without disruptions.”

As well as having a robust economy, Ghana has an attractive and liberal regime for investment and a transparent legal system that is business-friendly enough to attract a growing number of FDIs from the United States, Japan, Germany, India and more recently China.

That business-friendly legal system includes policies to promote trade, including import duty waivers as part of the ECOWAS economic block. This means that a buyer can obtain import duty waivers if it buys manufactured products from businesses within Ghana that have ETLS certification- such as Fabrimetal Ghana.

These policies also encourage the growth of local content, something Fabrimetal Ghana is a strong believer in.

“The focus is on producing an international product within the country,” says Raj. “All these products are typically imported and we want products that are made in Ghana but match international quality standards.”

At every step of the journey, Fabrimetal Ghana has shown its commitment to, and belief in Ghana’s potential as a business hub.

“We have faith in the country and its growth potential,” says Team Fabrimetal. “We believe it will continue to evolve as the hub for the region. As we continue to evolve as a company, we see tremendous potential for growth in Ghana as a country.”

Fabrimetal Ghana continues to support the country in its own way. In March 2020, the company partnered with Ghana’s Ministry of Health in pioneering an initiative to supply free oxygen to hospitals across the country.

“It was very much appreciated by the government, especially our just in time approach to logistics,” Raj recalls. “We realised the country needed oxygen and we did the necessary ongoing work. After 15 months we continue to provide oxygen to various hospitals free of cost.”

Fabrimetal Ghana also worked with the Forestry Commission, to support their Go Green Ghana initiative.

Ghana’s natural resources and favourable legal framework are all huge boons to businesses in the country. But Raj is clear on the country’s most impressive resource.

“We believe that our human capital is our biggest asset,” Raj points out. “We invest a lot in our human capital, guiding them with organizational values.”