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About the BRR

In pursuit of Government’s mandate to develop and implement policies to make Ghana a competitive manufacturing economy capable of contributing significantly to job-creation and economic growth, one of the key interventions is the Business Regulatory Reform Programme (2017-2020), an integrated medium-term plan coordinated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to create a better regulatory framework for the private sector to invest in job creation. The BRR Programme consists of seven pillars intended to systematically transform how Government makes and revises the regulations governing business activities in Ghana. It is designed to put in place efficient and fair government rules that encourage all businesses - small, medium and large - to invest in innovation, drive economic transformation, create more jobs, and become successful in the domestic, regional or global markets.

The BRR programme is an initiative based on international standards of good regulatory practice adopted by policy makers around the world to ensure that the laws and administrative rules that businesses are required to comply with, are based on sound economic principles which enable them compete and function effectively as “engines” of economic growth. Government has adopted some of these best practices for implementation under the BRR in order to build a more sustainable, predictable and transparent system for tracking and improving the business environment.

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Components of the BRR Programme
The Targeted Reform Initiatives

A coordinated national programme to improve Ghana’s ranking on the World Bank’s Doing Business Index. All 10 indicators are targeted for substantial improvements:

  • Business Entry (Starting A Business)
  • Business Location/Development Permit
  • Utility Connections
  • Registering Property
  • Financial Services
  • Market Competition
  • Taxation
  • International Trade
  • Dispute Resolution / Enforcing Contracts
  • Resolving Insolvency
  • Labor

Working Groups involving 36 institutions are currently devising critical reforms for the implementation of short-term and medium-term action plans.

One-stop e-Registry of Business Regulations

To enable businesses anywhere in the world to easily view and obtain every business law and regulation in force in Ghana, an inventory of business-related Acts, Legislative Instruments, Regulatory Notices and Administrative Directives, will be established and made available in a single electronic register (e-Register). It will provide businesses with an easily accessible, one-stop repository of up-to-date information on all business regulations (laws, directives, procedures, forms and fees) in force in Ghana.

Centralized Public Consultation Portal – A voice for all

An interactive web portal will be established for centralized public consultation with government institutions on business-related policy, legal and regulatory reforms. It will provide input into the review of existing regulations as well as the development of new regulations. Minimum standards for transparency in public consultation will be introduced, including a consultations schedule published on the portal, with timelines for receiving inputs from interested stakeholders as well as timelines for providing feedback from public institutions.. The different inputs from the portal will complement the inputs usually received from selected stakeholders and experts through face-to-face forums. Prior notification of upcoming consultations will allow stakeholders time to prepare themselves to submit positions. MDAs will use the portal to gather information and evidence to concisely formulate regulatory objectives and draft or revise regulations, with different inputs from the portal providing a quality check on the regulator’s assessment of costs-benefits and how to balance opposing interests.

Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA)

A regulatory impact analysis enables policy decision-makers to critically assess the positive and negative effects of proposed or existing regulations and to consider other alternatives to achieve policy objectives. The following measures will be undertaken in order to mainstream RIA:

  • Establish Regulatory Reform Units (RRUs) in MDAs as an institutional mechanism for conducting regulatory reform.
  • Provide training and capacity building for RRUs.
  • Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) to be undertaken by RRUs.
  • Feed RIA into Rolling Regulatory Review Exercise. This will impose a duty on regulators, underpinned by Guidelines describing in more detail how regulators will apply sound economic principles and good regulatory practice to deliver consistency and find the optimum balance between regulatory needs and economic benefits

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Rolling Review of business regulations, using Regulatory Guillotine principles

Rolling Review of Regulations is a sustainable way of updating and maintaining up-to-date business regulations to provide transparency and predictability to the private sector businesses. It adopts a systematic and step by step assessment of a regulatory field to review business regulations affecting sectors of the market in order to improve the market quality. It relies on a methodological review approach and strategy to carry out the rolling review of all business-related laws and regulations on the electronic database.
The Rolling Review begins with the configuration and development of evaluation and assessment schemes with key operational guidelines and review strategies. The implementation outcome of the Rolling Review of the regulations includes a detailed content analysis targeting the following tasks:
(a)assessment of the quality of business-related regulations,
(b)cleaning the regulatory field of regulations that do not correspond with a validated evaluation index and
(c)preparation of recommendations regarding the system regulatory improvement. In accordance with the assessment results of Rolling Review, one out of three (3) possible outcomes may be reached in respect of any single business regulation:
<1>Remove/Repeal/delete
<2> Maintain
<3>Review/Amend

Targeted Regulatory Relief

In order to stimulate higher levels of entrepreneurship and enterprise development in strategic sectors, Government will grant targeted relief for SMEs at early stages of development, from regulatory requirements, and gradually phase-in standard rules as the firms begin to grow. This would be used to promote subcontracting linkages between SMEs and large industries in strategic anchor industries.

Permanent Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) mechanisms

A permanent mechanism for structured Public-Private Dialogue which will involve regular consultations between government and the private sector will be established. A Presidential Business Summit will be organised annually at the beginning of each year to afford the private sector the opportunity to interact with the President and key Executives on their concerns and to agree on Key Performance Indicators and obligations to be met by both Government and the Private Sector. The Summit will be preceded by inclusive Regional Business Encounters to be organised by regional PPD Working Committees, which will feed into the agenda for the Summit

Reforming to Transform

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Our Vision

The vision is to make Ghana the most business-friendly economy in Africa

Impact

The desired overall impact is “Reduced risk and cost to the private sector, leading to increased investment and market entry, and higher overall growth in the economy”. For businesses, transparency reduces risks and uncertainties, promotes patient investment, reduces opportunities for corruption and helps unveil hidden investment barriers.

Outcomes

At the Outcome level, the implementation of the BRR will result in: “An improved business regulatory environment in Ghana with simpler, transparent and predictable rules and processes”

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Dedicated Team

Professional Individuals

Our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents being able to do what we like best every pleasure.

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Ag. Team Lead
Hannah M. Affum (Mrs.)
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Team Member
Cyril King
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Team Member
Catherine Numbuo
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Team Member
Raphael Awiagah

Have Your Say

Have you experienced any public service that requires reform? Are Government rules and regulations hindering progress of your business? Kindly click on the button to submit your concerns.