Presenting the GHANA Business Regulatory Reform Portal 

16-06-2023

 Presenting the GHANA Business Regulatory Reform Portal 

Last Monday I was invited by the European Union and World Bank to a presentation of the Business Regulatory Reforms (BRR) Programme implemented by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) as part of Government’s Agenda for Economic and Industrial Transformation. The programme seeks to improve the quality and transparency of regulatory administration in Ghana and create a predictable business regulatory environment.  One of the components of this programme is the online Portal for Public Consultations on Business Regulations (BRR Portal).

Going back in time to my first year as General Manager for GNBCC , this was in 2017, I was invited as a guest of the Dutch Ambassador for a dinner with ao the new Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry HE Mr Robert Ahomka Lindsay who explained that the Ghana government wanted to make Ghana the most business friendly country on the African continent . They had studied countries such as Singapore and wanted to go through all rules and regulations concerning doing business in Ghana in order to cut all red tape, double and competing regulations . It was like cutting all the dead wood in rules and regulations in order to create a business friendly climate where Ghana could improve its position on the ‘ Ease of doing business’  rank which was issued every year by the World Bank.

A nati0n's ranking on the index was based on an average of 10 subindices:

  • Starting a business – Procedures, time, cost, and minimum capital to open a new business
  • Dealing with construction permits – Procedures, time, and cost to build a warehouse
  • Getting electricity – procedures, time, and cost required for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection for a newly constructed warehouse
  • Registering property – Procedures, time, and cost to register commercial real estate
  • Getting credit – Strength of legal rights index, depth of credit information index
  • Protecting investors – Indices on the extent of disclosure, the extent of director liability, and ease of shareholder suits
  • Paying taxes – Number of taxes paid, hours per year spent preparing tax returns, and total tax payable as a share of gross profit
  • Trading across borders – Number of documents, cost, and time necessary to export and import
  • Enforcing contracts – Procedures, time, and cost to enforce a debt contract
  • Resolving insolvency – The time, cost, and recovery rate (%) under a bankruptcy proceeding

In 2017 Ghana was on number 108 (from 190 countries) while it was still on number 63 back in 2012 (in 2017 the worst country to do business was Somalia on rank 190 and the best New Zealand on Number 1). Since 2017 I lost track of the programme initiated by MOTI . In  2021 the World Bank discontinued the Doing Business Ranking, following allegations of irregularities, data manipulation, undue influence, and unethical behavior by World bank staff (source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_doing_business_index )

Going back to last Monday the Head of the Business Regulatory Reforms (BRR) Programme, Mrs Diana Afriyie Addo made a presentation on the BRR Programme mentioning the vision behind the programme which is to make Ghana the most business friendly economy in Africa. At that moment I knew that I found back the excellent  initiative started back in 2017 . I have attached the presentation on the BRR Programme which is quite interesting and ambitious concerning mission, vision, targets etc. After that a presentation was made on the BRR portal.

The Ghana Business Regulatory Reform Portal comprises:

  • A Public Consultations Portal which provides the platform for government and the private sector to regularly engage in policy and regulatory reforms, as well as promote dialogue and feedback between government and all its stakeholders to enhance quality of government programmes and service delivery; and
  • An online electronic system (E-Registry) which provides open and free access to business-related Laws, Regulations, Administrative Notices and Directives, forms, procedures, and fees that are in force in Ghana.

You can find the portal to see it for yourself, use it, check it etc. on www.brr.gov.gh . So on this portal you can find all rules and regulations used within the Ghana Business environment. It was mentioned that the rules and regulations of agencies and departments such as GIPC, Freezone, 1D1F were not part of the directory.  

After the presentation I remained hungry as we say in Dutch; so it’s good that most rules and regulations can now be found on this portal (most not all ) but apparently there has been no cutting of red tape, getting rid of double and competing regulations….

So still some homework to do if we want to become the most business friendly nation of Africa but maybe the BRR portal helps to find competing and overlapping rules and regulations from the different Ministries certainly when the GIPC , 1D1F and Freezone rules are added.  

But I call all to visit the www.brr.gov.gh in order to give feedback to MOTI . The following has been indicated (see picture) on the website :

Have you experienced any public service that requires reform ? Are Government rules and regulations hindering your business ? Please submit your concern !

For more information and documents on the BRR platform please contact Tjalling Wiarda at tjalling@gnbcc.net

Click here for more information.

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