Trade Ministry begins Business Regulatory Reforms to improve investor confidence in Ghana
The Deputy Minister in charge of International Trade at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Herbert Krapa, has said that the full implementation of ongoing reforms, in conjunction with some State Agencies like the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and other related agencies, would further improve investor confidence in Ghana.
According to him, the business regulatory reforms, which are currently being undertaken by his Ministry, are to guarantee transparency and stability in the investment climate of the country,
“The evidence shows that such a climate is a sure way of attracting investment into an economy,’’ he posited.
He spoke on a sub-theme: “Emerging Stronger Together: The Role of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Maximising Ghana’s Investment Potential” at the 2021 Ghana Investment Promotion Centre’s Annual Investment Summit at Accra.
Mr Krapa said, “the focus of the Summit had fallen in line with President Akufo-Addo’s vision on Trade, Industrial and Private Sector Development, as the Trade Ministry is mandated to formulating and implementing policies for the promotion of domestic and international trade and industry.”
He said, “the sterling leadership of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to commence work in his first term with a programme to clean up and strengthen Ghana’s financial sector, coupled with an aggressive industrial transformation agenda and the introduction of revolutionary social intervention measures, President was clearly seeing farther ahead than many of his peers.”
He added that since 2017, the Ministry has embarked on a Ten-Point Industrial Transformation Agenda aimed at maximising, amongst other things, including National Industrial Revitalisation Programme, and the One District One Factory (1D1F) programme.
Others are the Strategic Anchor Industries, Industrial Parks and Special Economic Zones, Development of Micro, Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises, Domestic Retail Infrastructure Enhancement, Industrial Subcontracting Exchange, Improving Public-Private Sector Dialogue and Business Regulatory Reforms.
The reform programmes
The reform programmes, currently being implemented, are hinged on seven components including the Targeted Reform Initiatives or Ease of Doing Business, a coordinated national programme to improve Ghana’s performance in key indicators and annual ranking on World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.
There is also the E-Register of Business Regulations: An online inventory that provides businesses with an easily accessible, one-stop repository of up-to-date information on all business regulations (laws, directives, procedures, forms and fees) in force in Ghana.
Another pillar of the reform programme is the Public Consultation Portal, an interactive web portal for centralized public consultation with government institutions on government policies, legal and regulatory reforms.
Also, there is the Regulatory Impact Assessment, which is an Ex-Post assessment of the impacts of proposed or existing policies or regulations, and alternatives to achieve policy objectives.
The Rolling Regulatory Review is an exercise designed to systematically carry out Rolling Reviews of regulations to eliminate, revise and simplify business regulations and reduce cost of compliance. It will contribute to the process of updating the e-Register on a continuous basis.
The Targeted Regulatory Relief: for SMEs to gradually phase-in standard rules as firms begin to grow and promote subcontracting linkages between SMEs and large industries and,
Finally, the Public-Private Dialogue, a permanent mechanism for structured Public-Private Dialogue which involves regular consultations between Government and the Private Sector.
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