Board makes input into investment regulations

By Fred SARPONG


The Board of Directors of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), chaired by Ishmael Yamson, has made inputs into the new draft of the GIPC regulations, which are under review.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GIPC, George Aboagye, speaking at news briefing in Accra last week, said the board had directed the centre to include the vision of the country in the draft document.
He said they also called for the inclusion in the document the government’s objective of creating more jobs for Ghanaians, especially the youth.
Aboagye indicated that the board also expects that the new regulations will measure up to the current impact of the economy in order to assess the future economic situation of the country.
BusinessWeek learnt that the board said the regulations must be responsive to the needs of the local firms, as well as those of the foreign companies.
The new regulations, GIPC Act 2008, will replace the GIPC 1994 Law.
As a result of these inputs from the board, the centre will hold several meetings with stakeholders before the board takes a critical look at the final document, after which it will be sent to Cabinet for consideration and approval.
The draft document was supposed to be ready by the end of the 3rd quarter of this year, and then sent to Cabinet for scrutiny, but got delayed.
The CEO said even though the review of the document made specific points in the interest of Ghanaian businesses, especially those in the retail sector, the government was acting carefully so that there will be no conflict between Ghanaian and foreign traders.
The careful study of the document by the new administration of the centre is to give a broad room to both local and foreign investors to operate and do business in the country.
However, the proposed regulations want joint venture investment capital to increase from US$10,000 to US$250,000 while investment capital for a firm which is 100% foreign owned to be increased from US$50,000 to US$500,000.
The proposed new law stipulates that investors who will invest in the trading sector will now be required to bring in US$1,000,000, as against the previous amount of US$300,000.
Under the proposed regulations, retail investors are required to employ at least 20 Ghanaians, double the minimum of 10 stipulated under the old law, while 25% of products content must originate from Ghana.
Before the proposed law was sent to Cabinet late last year, it drew protests from foreigners operating in various segments of the services and retail industries.
They claimed the reviewed regulations would hinder foreign investment.