The National Steering Committee of the Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) has been encouraged to ensure that its 2023 report gives innovative backing to businesses across the country.
This, according to the Ministry of Finance, will help shape relevant policies to stimulate the profiling of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other critical economic targets.
The 2023 integrated Business and Establishment Survey seeks to expand its scope on the informal sector as part of moves to bridge the growth gaps of the economy.
Speaking at the inauguration of the National Steering Committee, Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, tasked the national steering committee to ensure that their inputs towards the survey will inform national development.
“The survey will help us address not businesses and their existence but also what comes with it: the taxes that they pay. It will also help us profile the way we look at our GDP and other equally important economic targets that we have in this country,” she explained.
“We need to attach all the importance that is required of us and so we will demand of all these agencies a class of staff that can take decisions that will best affect us positively. The Ministry of Finance is ready to support in every way that we can to make sure that at the end of the day we have a successful survey,” she noted.
On his part, government statistician, Professor Samuel Annim, highlighted the essence of the growth poles in determining policies.
“For the first time the data that we going to collect will give us what we call the business growth poles which essentially tells us the viability of the different businesses we have in Ghana across different geographic areas,” he said.
“Also on the back of the pandemic when a lot of businesses suffered because of the pandemic, government wanted to support businesses but we didn’t have readily available data so this will also build a live business register,” he added.