Conducive business environment imperative for national development

 If reports on the performance on the country in the various sectors are anything to go by, then the political establishment must pay particular attention to both the areas in which it performed well and where it did poorly.

This is to help it improve per­formance in both categories be­cause public officials in charge of sectors scoring high can get swollen-headed, which can lead to complacency and eventually unsatisfactory performance.

Poor performance naturally should prompt public officials of the affected sectors to up their game

The Ghanaian Times is raising these issues because of the lat­est World Bank Group Business Ready Report giving informa­tion on the country’s perfor­mance in such areas as labour, utility services and business insolvency in 2024.

The report says the country performed creditably in these areas, yet it was quick to give comments to the effect that the country scored lowest in market competitions, business entry, dispute resolution and digital­isation of intellectual property services.

The country must pay atten­tion to all the good practices the report claims helped it perform creditably in certain areas like labour and business insolvency, and, at least, vow not to fall below the mark attained and strive to make it the benchmark for even worse-case scenarios in the future.

This is because other coun­tries are performing better, which means that Ghana too can glean lessons from best situ­ations to improve performance.

Meanwhile, particular atten­tion must be paid to the areas where the country performed abysmally.

The irony is that these are also areas that are pivotal in economic development, so the information on these areas must not be allowed to pass by as business as usual.

Why, for instance, should it take 57 days to register a new local business in the country, while the same process takes three days in Rwanda?

This is frustrating and can cause certain applicants to aban­don the process and find a way to run the business and deny the country certain payments like business registration fees and even taxes.

Others who pay strict atten­tion to the law and fear any criminal charges would wait, but compared to Rwanda, such waiting is fruitless or wasteful.

It is sad to learn that it takes the average of 900 days (two-and-a-half years) to resolve business disputes in the country, almost four times longer than the period it takes to do so in Côte d’Ivoire.

Do the relevant Ghanaian public officials worry about the fate of the businesses involved in such disputes?

What are so different about business disputes in Ghana from others elsewhere that such a long period should be taken to resolve them?

Is it not irritating to take 40 hours (five working days in real terms) to prepare and pay tax in the country, while it took just 12 hours (two working days in real terms) in Sierra Leone to do so?

Already, payment of taxes in the country is an unpalatable enterprise for many.

The problems are many but The Ghanaian Times is glad that the Minister of Trade, Agribusi­ness and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, has reaffirmed the government’s commit­ment to strengthening Ghana’s business environment through a robust regulatory framework.

Hopefully this would be done in record time for the country to solidify its economic founda­tion and attract more invest­ment in an era of resetting the country for the betterment of all its sectors for the expected national development.