World Bank calls for reduction in business compliance costs in Ghana
Lead Country Economist for the World Bank, Aurelien Kruse, has urged government to implement measures aimed at reducing business compliance costs incurred by businesses in the country.
According to Mr Kruse, government needs to undertake a comprehensive review and streamlining of all business requirements at the national, subnational and sector levels.
“There are many good key practices when it comes to business registration that could improve the overall framework and process in Ghana to make it well-functioning, objective-driven, and business-friendly. First, there is the need for reduction of business compliance costs through undertaking a comprehensive review and streamlining of all business requirements at the national, subnational and sector levels,” he remarked.
Mr Kruse made the assertion speaking on behalf of Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana at the 5th IMANI-GIZ Reform Dialogue on the theme “Business Registration, Regulation, Property Rights and their Impact on Ghana’s Business Climate.”
Speaking further at the event, he asserts that there is the need for a clear, objective, transparent and predictable licensing regime that will reduce risks for businesses in the country.
Adding that there should be effective and efficient government-to-business services through integrating services and reducing overlap and duplications among involved institutions, streamlining procedures (removing requirements, reducing the time taken), application of risk-based approaches, dissemination of information and having political leadership and a competent and skilled staff championing the business registration reforms.
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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.
At the event, recommendations on how to address the problems regarding complex processes for starting a business; land title and property rights; enforcement of contracts; and resolving insolvency were made.
The recommendations include;
- 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 search as well 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.
