Business registration in Ghana fraught with frustration and avoidable delays – ILAPI boss

Executive Director of policy think tank, Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation, Peter Bismark Kwofie, has bemoaned what he described as frustration and corruption associated with business registration in Ghana.

The business consultant indicated that he has observed that no single manufacturing company in the country has all 13 business registration certificates valid for a business year.

Peter Bismark Kwofie claimed that without middlemen at the various regulatory offices, one could spend two or more years chasing after their business registration certificates.

He said the process is fraught with extortion, frustration, network failure, and, printing machine breakdowns, missing documents.

He wrote, “As a Business Regulatory Consultant, I have observed that no manufacturing company in Ghana has all the 13 business registration certificates valid in a particular year. A new manufacturing company at the entry level of doing business could take two years or more to acquire all the business certificates to operate without middlemen but could take you 8 months with middlemen at the various regulatory offices."

"The queue, frustrations, extortions, network failure, and, printing machine breakdowns, missing documents would cause you to have blood pressure. Your willingness to formalize a business is a crime and unwanted. I will tell you more on it in a panel in future."

"Depending on the sector of Business operation in Ghana, it could take a manufacturing company 768 hours to have all valid permits, licenses and certificates. This even comes with assistance from middlemen at the various regulatory agencies."

"If you think you can do that alone by formally going through the processes of securing valid licenses, permits and certificates could take you at least 2 years. We shall discuss the cost later.”