The Registrar General’s Department (RGD), upon completion of a unification exercise on all the entities involved in business registration, has indicated that it has attained the World Bank standard of business registration for such a governmental institution.
“The World Bank’s standardisation requires that we reduce the time it takes to register a business, and do away with some of the cumbersome processes involved. So, one of the measures we put in place with our new reform is to unify all the four institutions involved when it comes to business registration.
“These institutions are the RGD, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the Metropolitan/Municipal and District Assemblies. Previously, after presenting your documents at the RGD they would then be forwarded to GRA for some eight days, after which they would proceed to SSINT and further to the MDAs before they were finally ready for the client; but all these have been eliminated,” State Attorney-RGD, Domtie Afua Sarpong, explained while speaking as a panellist at the 4th CEO Summit.
She further indicated that the RGD’s digital platform that is available for use is a one-stop shop for all business documentation requirements, and therefore entrepreneurs, investors or individuals who want to register their businesses must use the platform and stop engaging third-parties or middlemen.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant, also speaking as a panellist at the 4th CEO Summit on the theme ‘Inspiring Business and Economic Transformation’, stated that government’s duty is to create an enabling environment for developmental growth; but it cannot be blamed entirely for the slow pace of business growth in the country.
“Government’s real role is to create the environment and let businesses run; and if businesses are not running fast enough, then the presumption is that there is something government is not doing right.
“Implementing reforms must also consider or focus on the private sector for the youth to prefer going into it, rather than aiming for higher pay cheques from public sector,” he said.
Miss Sarpong further stressed that the Companies Act, which is currently waiting for Presidential Assent, will be the basis of most of the reforms in the business environment, and provide a clear direction to that process.
The CEO-CAL Bank, Frank Adu, commended the RGD for doing a good work on streamlining the process by digitising the platform and eliminating almost all the cumbersome bottlenecks; but indicated that if the infrastructure provided by the public sector is not adequate, the private sector has to bear the cost – leading to an increase in cost of doing business.
Source: thebftonline.com
