Since 2015, IMANI Center for Policy and Education together with its partners, has been implementing the “Leveraging Indices for Free Enterprise Policy Reform”, a project based on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report and whose object is to research policy initiatives that could have substantial impact on the processes required to start and run a business as well as pay taxes in Ghana.
First and foremost, we believe that there’s the need to address the issues of the effectiveness of the current Registrar General’s Department’s (RGD) online platforms. Although the RGD does have a website as well as an extension that enables entrepreneurs to register their business online, through our recent investigations, we have found that the website and its extensions are not fully functional; some links are broken, some are out of date, and overall the website is not user-friendly.
Secondly, we note that the government has taken actions to cut down on the excess of regulatory conditions previously required to register a business in Ghana. However, our research has identified that there is a miscommunication of information between the public and the government, about the available services and the most effectual ways to use them.
Also, our interactions with informal tax payers and business owners like yours point to the existence of a communication asymmetry between tax collectors and government and informal tax payer groups which makes it difficult for the tax payers to comply with tax laws.
In furtherance therefore of government’s efforts to reform and optimise the business environment, we are organising a Forum to discuss the recommendations that have stemmed out of our Leveraging Indices for Free Enterprise Policy Reform project.
We are inviting you to attend the Forum, as your participation will add to its richness.
This event will assemble private sector players, including taxpayer groups, local investors, young entrepreneurs as well as informal business owners, and an open conversation involving officials from the Registrar General’s, the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Ministry of Trade, Business Chambers, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre as well as the Ghana Chamber of Young Entrepreneurs.
Details of the Forum are as follows:
Event: IMANI Business Reform Forum
Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Venue: The Tang Palace, Conference Room 3.
Time: 9AM-11 AM
Please confirm your participation via email to info@imanighana.org
As usual, we count on your collaboration.
Sincerely yours,
Franklin Cudjoe
President
