B&FT Editorial: Parliamentary bill to enhance MSME operations

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) has tabled a bill before parliament to foster MSME operations.

The bill, when passed into law, will consolidate all business registration and certification processes from the various state agencies – such as the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) among other sector-specifics.

This was revealed by the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry (MoTI) in charge of Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) and Internal Trade, Kofi Ahenkorah Marfo.

Consequently, heads of various regulatory institutions have been extensively engaged to build synergy and synchronise systems for easy access and eliminating repetition.

“The bureaucratic processes in obtaining certification and permits is the challenge with our business ecosystem, so the bill seeks to give regulators some strict timelines to comply with and avoid any serious challenges with documentation,” he noted.

An area of grave concern in this regard is land registration and obtaining building permits to fast-track the process of getting a business running to grow local productivity.

Also, through continuous engagement with Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the process for obtaining a fire-certificate has now been shortened to five days.

In fact, the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) in partnership with Mastercard Foundation has launched the Ghana Mall – a flagship programme under the BizBox project that helps MSMEs get access to a ready market to trade their products and services.

The mall will provide over 800 local MSMEs an opportunity to showcase their made-in-Ghana goods to the public

Mr. Seth Twum-Akwaboah, CEO-Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), lauded the GEA and Mastercard for such a wonderful initiative that seeks to address one of the most critical needs of SMEs – which is access to markets. He further urged the partners to replicate their initiative across all regions.

Marfo made these remarks on the sidelines of the Ghana Mall launch – the new marketplace facility that provides a ready market for goods locally produced by MSMEs.

Indeed, the bureaucratic processes in obtaining certification and permits are a challenge within the country’s business ecosystem, and this bill seeks to cure that problem.

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