Minister decries low ranking of Ghana in Doing Business

Mr Robert Ahomkah-Linsay, a Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, says Ghana’s 108th position on the Doing Business Ranking in the world is not the best.

He, therefore, announced seven specific measures government intended to implement to enhance the business environment in order to move Ghana to the 46th position in the shortest possible time.

He said: “We don’t feel comfortable being there, it is the sixth division of football and I don’t like playing in that division so we need to move up the ladder”.

The Doing Business Ranking Report, released in 2016 by the World Bank Group, placed Ghana on the 108th position with Mauritius leading the African ranking at the 47th position as the best business-friendly nation on the Continent.

Mr Ahomkah-Linsay expressed these concerns when making a presentation on the topic; “Business Regulatory Reform and the Public-Private Dialogue,” at the National Policy Summit in Accra.

The Second Edition of the Policy Summit was organised by the Ministry of Information and featured the Ministry of Trade and Industry on the theme: “The Industrial Transformation of Ghana”.

The two-day event afforded the various stakeholders the opportunity to make inputs into the industrial transformation agenda of the Government to accelerate national development.

The Deputy Minister said government was passionate about business regulatory reforms and would, therefore, institute stringent measures to reverse the trend.

Mr Ahomkah-Linsay mentioned the seven measures as: Enhancing the country’s business environment to be number one in Africa, taking inventory of business regulatory and one-stop shop e-registry, and centralized portal for public-private dialogue and consultation.

Others are; rolling regulatory review to remove barriers in the registration of businesses, quality control of new business regulation and regulatory relief for small and medium -scale enterprises and strategic communications and public engagements.

Mr Ahomkah-Linsay said there was the need to reduce risk in the private sector and ensure predictability of the business environment since it was the base of every planning process.

He said government’s intention was to increase investments and improve market entry for businesses.

The stakeholders were supposed to meet regularly to dialogue at the regional and national levels to facilitate their clearer understanding of the Government’s business regulatory reform, he said.

The Doing Business Report is a study expounded by the World Bank Group since 2003 aimed to measure the costs of business regulatory firms in 185 countries.

The study has become one of the flagship knowledge products of the World Bank Group in the field of private sector development and is claimed to have motivated the design of several regulatory reforms in developing countries.

It presents, every year, a detailed analysis of costs, requirements, and procedures a specific type of private firm is subject to in all countries, and then creates rankings for every country.

The study is also backed by broad communication efforts, and by creating rankings, the study spotlights countries and leaders that are promoting reforms.