A former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay says Ghana is not yet an attractive investment destination.
He was commenting on the recent World Bank report on doing business, which ranks Ghana 102 when it comes to starting a business, on TV3’s programme, Business Focus on Monday.
The report considered the procedures, time, cost and paid-in minimum capital to start a limited liability company in 189 countries.
Ghana’s ranking for starting a business fell from 97th to 102nd in 2016.
With the exception of construction permits, every other key indicator in the Doing Business survey has remained same or worsened.
Additionally the country slipped from 112 to 114th under the ease of doing business ranking for 2016
The report comes just at a time when the country moved up five places from 119 to 114 in the global competitiveness index.
It however indicated that access to finance remains a major factor affecting Ghana’s competitiveness, an assertion the Former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay shares
“I am not excited about what is happening. Because I am not seeing a concerted, clear effort to address the key issues that are affecting our businesses today, that is where I have the greatest problem,” he said.
Many countries are redoubling their efforts in reforms and in some cases are cutting substantially the regulatory burden and thereby easing the cost of compliance.
In some jurisdictions, businesses can be registered in a day.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the best performers are Burundi and Liberia, where it takes four days and four and a half days respectively.
In Ghana however, it takes on average 14 days or more to register a business, and the cost of starting a business rose by 70 per cent in 2012 alone.
This means Ghana has competition for investment and needs to do more to attract it.
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