The IMANI Centre for Policy and Education (“IMANI CPE) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit GmbH (“GIZ”) on 22 September 2021 held its 5th IMANI-GIZ Reform Dialogue on the theme “Business Registration, Regulation, Property Rights and their impact on Ghana’s Business Climate.”
The dialogue sought to engage relevant stakeholders in Ghana’s business registration, regulation, and property rights space to discuss how the country can address the bottlenecks and increase efficiency to enhance the ease of doing business.
The event took place at the Alisa Hotel and brought together industry experts, public sector leaders, private sector leaders, international agencies including the World Bank, academics, and civil society organizations operating within the area.
Recommendations on how to address the problems regarding complex processes for starting a business, land title and property rights, enforcement of contracts, resolving insolvencies are summarized below:
- Policymakers should pursue integrated rulemaking, integrated regulatory delivery, as well as monitoring and feedback of regulations to address the implementation gaps.
- The Registrar General’s Department should speed up the process of digitizing the companies in their manual system since 1963. This will enable real-time company searches as well as eliminate the names of dormant businesses from its register. The business consultations portal (www.bcp.gov.gh) should be improved and made mobile-friendly.
- Ghana’s Land Commission should facilitate the registration of all private lands and make records readily available. This is not an easy task –around the world, less than a third of economies have a registry with full coverage of private lands.
- Deregulation in the business space needs to be accompanied by predictability and simplicity in the implementation of the right policies. At the least transparency, automation and the enhancement of accountability should guide all reforms.
- The government of Ghana should pursue a swift implementation of the new Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act, as in the COVID-19 context, it will maximize capital recovery and put capital back to work in productive enterprises.
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AGI ADVOCATES DEDICATED AFCFTA IMPLEMENTATION FUND
The country needs a dedicated fund to enable it to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) fully in a manner that accrues to the benefit of industry, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has advocated.
The AfCFTA, the single largest untapped continental market available for trade and immediate investment commenced in January this year; but the AGI fears the absence of a dedicated fund, given the current economic climate due to the pandemic, might negatively impact its execution.
It is against this background and given the enormous benefits that comprehensive implementation of the agreement would bring to the economy, that AGI wants the government to set aside funds to ensure smooth enforcement.
Such a fund, AGI’s Vice President Humphrey Dake explains, will ensure full implementation of the treaty to the letter and position local industries to reap the full benefits of a continental free trade zone.
“We need to have a dedicated fund for AfCTFA implementation to empower industry to take full advantage of the agreement,” he said.
Mr. Dake, who spoke in Accra during the Greater Accra Regional AGI annual general meeting, said a dedicated fund will speed up implementation, strengthen policy direction, education, and aid efforts to make the country a major player within the AfCFTA bloc.
The secretariat is hosted in Accra, and Ghana, as one of the leading members – is expected to provide leadership policy direction and implementation.
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