Ghana - A tax havens

Ghana is cited as an example of how large and self-interested banks or companies can run circles around the slow-moving Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In June, 2005, Barclays Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Ghana to help them develop an offshore haven called The International Financial Services Center.

A concept paper for the Ghanaian government was commissioned by Barclays and produced by the bank's consultant, Grant Thornton Mauritius. In June, 2006, Ghana's government signed off on the recommendations, authorizing Barclays and its consultants to develop the proper legal framework, which Ghana's parliament passed into law the following year.

In September 2007, Barclays Bank Ghana Offshore Banking Unit became the first and only such operation in North and West Africa, according to the bank's own press release. An additional law, to expand the regulation so other financial institutions can follow Barclays' lead, is expected to become law in 2009, according to Wilson Prichard, of The Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University.

Mr. Prichard and others believe that Ghana's offshore banking centre, next door to oil-rich Nigeria, could do terrible economic damage in the region, as Africa's wealthy use it to further reduce taxable income in their own impoverished nations.

The point: Ghana does not appear anywhere on the OECD's list of tax havens updated on June 8, 2009.

Nicholas Bray, head of Media Affairs at the OECD, says that Ghana is one of four jurisdictions -- along with Qatar, Jamaica, and Botswana -- that is under review. "The four will be invited to respond to questionnaires," says Mr. Bray, their answers eventually to be assessed by the OECD's Global Forum on Tax Transparency.