Ghana is eyeing the number one spot on the World Bank’s annual Ease of Doing report in Africa, following a revelation that the country which ranked 108 in last year’s report, is going to embark on sweeping reforms, this year.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yoofi Grant who disclosed this at third luncheon American Chamber of Commerce Ghana, said: “We are targeting Mauritius and Georgia on the Ease of Doing Business report”.
“We intend to displace Mauritius as the number one country in ease doing business in Africa. We have the advantage because of our natural resources but we need to embark on aggressive reforms to enable us achieve this dream”, he stated.
To this end, Mr Grant revealed that the GIPC under his watch had started working with the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) to ensure that businesses are registered within a day. Currently, it takes more than 14 days to register a business in Ghana.
He added that the GIPC was going to reactivate the one stop-shop business registration centre which was in operation in 2005.
This centre is expected to make registration of investments faster and more effective and give better co-ordination between the administration authorities and investors.
The core institutions involved in the centre will be RGD, GIPC, Bank of Ghana (BoG), Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). The other supporting institutions are the National Communication Authority (NCA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), utility providers, Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority (GPHA), and Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
He noted that the GIPC was considering plans to review the cap for investments into the country in a bid to attract more investors into Ghana. In this regard, the Centre is planning to review its laws to accommodate global standards.
“We have noticed that even the issue of capital limit for investors can be a stumbling block in investment attraction and many investors will just turn their backs due to capital limits so we are reviewing how we can change that”.
Mr Grant was quick to add that his outfit is initiating plans to reduce the level of human interface.
To this end, the Centre is expected to introduce electronic systems to facilitate the processes and reduce the turnaround time in registrations.
“We are also trying very hard to put in place where a system where a lot of our interventions will take away the human aspect and we will use technology to facilitate the payments, registration and interactions with the other agencies. We will use technology to facilitate a one stop shop to make registration and our interaction with investors faster and more efficient.”
Touching on the country’s performance in last year Ease of Doing Business report titled- ‘Equal Opportunity for All’ which Ghana was placed at position 108 out of 190 countries surveyed in the Overall Ranking of Ease of Doing Business, Mr Grant noted that the country was ranked at 182 position in Getting Credit, while the country was also poorly ranked in Enforcing Contracts.
He however stated: “The cost of doing business in Ghana is too high. So, we are focusing on removing those barriers to make it easy for companies to grow”.
Mr Grant used the occasion to assure the business community that the current government would deliver on its plans made to the people, stressing: “Our plans and dreams are achievable”.
He said it was based on this that the Minister of Finance in his maiden budget abolished about seven taxes including 1 percent Special Import Levy; 17.5 percent Value Added Tax/National Health Insurance Levy (VAT/NHIL) on financial services; 17.5 percent VAT/NHIL on selected imported medicines, that are not produced locally; initiate steps to remove import duties on raw materials and machinery for production within the context of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET) Protocol; 17.5 percent VAT/NHIL on domestic airline tickets; and 5 percent VAT/NHIL on Real Estate sales.
The GIPC boss was optimistic that the removal of these taxes were indications that the country’s economy was going to grow further again.
“The purpose of this government is to create an enabling business environment that the people are happy about. That is why we take it upon ourselves to clear all the hindrances in the environment to make the people happy.
Additionally, this government is business focused. So, we will create the environment for them not only to thrive but to survive”, Mr Grant told the business leaders.
He was confident that the GIPC would achieve its $5 billion target in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to the country by the end of the year 2017. This target is more than double the total FDIs recorded in 2016.
“We have been between 2.5 to 3 billion dollars annually over the past four to five years and we are looking forward to push it further to 5 billion dollars of inward investments which will translate into multiples of tax revenue and jobs”.
Instructively, the American Chamber of Commerce (Ghana) is a leading voluntary association of professional and business people, working to create an environment where business can thrive between Ghanaian and American communities.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
