Business regulators could be more helpful to SMEs – CEO of Wanjo Africa

Local businesses are struggling and most of them on the verge of collapse because Ghanaian business regulators do not care about small businesses, Chief Executive Officer of Wanjo Africa has said.

Yaganoma Baatuolkuu bemoaned the stringent standards and regulations set by the business regulating agencies in the country with regards to the sampling, charges, registration fees and several other business related areas.

“The regulatory bodies are not helpful...they’re killing the local businesses with fees you pay when you go there. GSA for instance, late back in 2015, I tried to get a GSA logo and it was GHC4,000 per product, as a startup it was ridiculous, they're just killing businesses…since that happened I couldn't be bothered to go and get their logo”.

She noted that her rather sour experience with the Foods and Drugs Authority, Ghana Standards Authority and Ghana Revenue Authority, if not checked, would run SMEs at loss instead of providing a cushion for them to thrive in the growing competition.

“There’re a lot of people in the system who are absolutely refusing to pay taxes, they’re refusing to get license because of the stress they go through…because of that the country is losing money because we’re falling through the cracks. We don’t have a system geared towards the local entrepreneurs, it’s more towards the international entrepreneur which doesn’t work…”

Ms Baatuolkuu was speaking on a panel discussion and an interaction with Ghanaweb at the Ghana Youth Entrepreneurship convention with kick-start today, March 15, 2019 at the British Council.

Day one of the two-day convention kicked off with a panel discussion spearheaded by successful young entrepreneurs and key stakeholders in the field of entrepreneurship from Ghana, who churned out interesting entrepreneurial experiences, ideas and pieces of advice amongst several other related topics.

Panelists included Kyerewa Attah-Krah who is the founder of April Rust and the Bold Circle, founder and managing director of Wanjo Africa, Yaganoma Baatuolkuu, CEO of Omanbapa Ghana ltd, Bernard Oduro Takyi and Isaac Yeboah Filson, Founder of Play Africa.