President Akufo-Addo has called on captains of industry and corporate Ghana as a whole to take advantage of the public, private dialogue platforms his administration has introduced to have their challenges and issues of mutual concern properly addressed.
Addressing attendees of the first presidential fundraising and dinner awards night of the Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors (GARIA), the president reiterated his call on all private sector players to collaborate with his government to constitute a strong team that would transform the Ghanaian economy.
He further observed that “My government is a listening one and I encourage stakeholders to utilize the private, public dialogue platforms being introduced by the government to address issues of mutual concern in achieving the socio-economic transformation of our country.”
Passage of the New Companies Act
Touching on the passage of the new Companies Act, the president said: “We now have the Companies Act 2019 to which by the Grace of God, I accented to yesterday [Friday], 2nd August 2019. The process of enactment is now complete.”
He expressed confidence the new Act would improve the ease of doing business in Ghana, enhance the Corporate Governance Regulatory Framework, and reduce the cost of ensuring compliance for business.
The new Act replaces the old 1963 Companies Act.
Importance and Funding of GARIA
GARIA, which is an association of professionals with an interest in restructuring and insolvency, was established to play a leadership role in corporate restructuring, business recovery and insolvency advisory in Ghana.
It was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies’ Act 1963 (Act 179) on the 8th August 2006.
The mission of GARIA is to essentially encourage restructuring of distressed entities including state-owned enterprises and other business establishments; to promote and play a thought leadership role in connection with and in relation to business turnarounds and insolvencies, promote law reforms in effective business recovery measures and insolvency, provide a forum for practitioners engaged in business recovery and insolvency practice, and promote international cooperation with respect to insolvency or business recovery and related cross border matters.
According to President Akufo-Addo GARIA, is a very vital institution in the field of advisory services, insolvency, corporate restructuring and business recovery.
As part of the effort to enhance its work, he launched the GARIA Trust Fund which would be the principal financing vehicle for GARIA and would be managed by an independent board of Trustees.
He said he would ask the Ministries of Finance, Trade & Industry and Business Development to see to what extent they could properly assist the fund.
In the meantime, he donated GHc 50,000.00 to the fund.
Chairman for the Occasion
The Chairman for the occasion, retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Professor Samuel Date-Bah, held at the Labadi Beach Hotel on theme; “Passage of the New Companies Act: A Booster for Ease of Doing Business in Ghana’ called on government to as a matter of urgency ensure that Ghana ratifies the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods which was signed in Vienna in 1980.
President Akufo-Addo in response to this call by the eminent jurist said he had taken due note of the call for the ratification and hopefully action would be sooner than later.