Government eyes first place on Ease of Doing Business Index

The government is to introduce a number of reforms in the trade and industry sector to help push it up on the annual World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, said the reforms would include the establishment of an electronic registry of business regulations, a public consultation web portal and a business regulatory reform unit in all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The vision of the government is to move 12 places up among African countries ranked on the survey through the introduction of strong regulatory reforms in the country by 2020.

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At the maiden Chamber Business Awards on November 25 in Accra, the minister said: “I must confess, Ghana’s current ranking on the Ease of Doing Business Index is not favourable and so our aim is to ensure that within the next three years, we will deploy the needed reforms to change our fortunes,” he said.

Reforms

Mr Kyerematen said the government was embarking on a very ambitious programme on business regulatory reforms to help overturn its fortunes on the Ease of Doing Business Index.

He explained that the government was also working with 33 MDAs across eight sectors to improve Ghana’s ranking on the World Bank’s Doing Business Index.

“These reforms, among others, will help ensure that individual public servants are not allowed to determine which regulations apply at what time, and so the electronic register will be a repository to all business regulations and processes that affect the business community,” he said.

Ease of Doing Business

Ghana recorded one of its biggest drops in the latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report, with the data showing the country stepping down by 12 places.

The Doing Business 2018 Report showed that Ghana placed 120th out of 190 countries surveyed in the overall ranking of Ease of Doing Business, a drop from 108 in the previous report.

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Also in Africa, Ghana was not part of the top 10, coming 12th out of the 47 countries ranked in the region. This is evidence that the government implemented less reforms in the period under review to ensure the ease of doing business in Ghana.

The top 10 countries in the region are Mauritius, Rwanda, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Seychelles, Zambia, Lesotho, Namibia and Malawi.

The Ease of Doing Business Index ranks economies from one to 190. For each economy, the ranking is calculated as the simple average of the percentile rankings on each of the 11 topics included in the index in Doing Business 2018.

The topics were starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labour market.

Addressing data overlays

The President of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI), Nana Appiagyei Dankawoso I, in his address, said the government’s pursuit of the industrial transformation agenda was commendable as it emphasised a strong private sector participation in the overall growth and development of the country.

“Following from the GNCCI industrial forum on the one-district, one-factory initiative, the chamber has identified the need to organise our industries along significant and relevant value chain towards industrial development,” he said.

Consequently, he said, the chamber had commissioned a team of experts for the industrial value chain project to provide bottom-up data to address data overlays hindering business growth.

Also, Nana Dankawoso noted that the project would help provide business strategic models to support the country’s agricultural industrialisation drive, as well as attract foreign direct investments (FDIs) into the country.

Chamber Business Awards

The Chamber Business Awards inspired and promoted the entrepreneurial spirit in businesses and personalities by highlighting the success stories of outstanding award winners.

It was on the theme: “Enterprises in Transition: Recognising Innovative Business in Ghana.”