6th CEO’s Summit pushes for ease of doing business law to boost economic growth

The Ghana CEO’s Summit is urging government to take a serious look at addressing the bottlenecks embedded in the country’s civil service and craft a framework that will streamline systems for a more efficient delivery of government services.

The CEO’S Summit believes that easing business processes like tax filing, business registration and the likes will reduce corruption, quicken economic growth and improve the overall competitiveness of the economy.

Speaking at the launch of the 6th Ghana CEO’s Summit, CEO of the Summit, Ernest De-Graft Egyir hinted that enacting the Ease of Doing Business and Anti Red Tape Act in the county will make services rendered by the civil service less cumbersome.

“Remaining committed to creating an enabling environment for the conduct of business in Ghana, our call to action at the Summit this year is for the passage of an Ease of Doing Business and Anti-Red tape Act. The passage of an Ease of Doing Business and Anti-Red tape Act is the way to eliminate rigid conformity to procedures and requirements in government service which only creates redundancy and bureaucracy. Such legislation will require government agencies to promote transparency in their services to the public by improving efficiency and reducing bureaucratic practices,” he said.

In Ghana, Small and Medium Sized Entrepreneurs, SMEs account for over 90 percent of all registered businesses and generate more than 90 percent of employment.

SMEs have the potential to generate close to half a million jobs every year if well supported. Unfortunately, many of these businesses do not survive long enough to create these jobs.

Already, a world bank report indicated that the ease of doing business in Ghana deteriorated marginally in 2020 compared to the previous year.. The latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business ranking shows that Ghana has dropped from 114 in 2019 to 118 in 2020.

This year’s edition of the event, which is slated for May 30, 2022 is on the theme ‘Digital leadership for the digital economy: leading digital business & government transformation.’

Speaking at the launch,Ernest De-Graft Egyir said the the theme for this year’s summit was carefully chosen to reflect the need for digital leadership for businesses in furtherance of government’s agenda of creating a digital economy.

“The subject of digital leadership for a digital economy is an important one and the summit will provide a platform for deliberation on the subject, with an aim of equipping business leaders with the skill set and mindset needed to become digital leaders. In this era of digital transformation, business leaders must as a matter of necessity champion digital solutions to the challenges faced in their operations and ultimately, in the economy. The key to successful businesses and the transformation of the economy lies in digital leadership,” he added.

CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant, also commenting at the event said the call for CEOs to become digital leaders, as the theme of the event encapsulates, is an ideal one.

“Ghana has in recent years been keen on its digital transformation, with initiatives such as digitisation of port systems, introduction of interoperability, digital address systems among others. We are making tremendous gains and need to build on them,” Mr. Grant said.

He said the quest to improve the current ease of doing business and subsequently back it with legislation is what the GIPC has also been pushing for.

“Improvement in processes and the ease of doing business meant a lot to us, because it has helped in improving the inflow of FDIs” he said.

Key personalities to participate in the event include President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Bawumia; Pierre Frank Laporte, Country Director of World Bank; Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison; Jayanth Murphy, Managing Director of South Asia and Africa at Kaizen Institute; CEO of GIPC, Yofi Grant; President of the Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors (GARIA), Frank Addo; and Country Managing Partner of Deloitte, Daniel Kwadwo Owusu, among many other dignitaries and captains of industry.