Competitiveness under AFCFTA: Ghana needs a business impact analysis of all Bills passed – Lawyer
"In fact, there are Legislations in this country that actually prevents entities from growing. A recent one was passed which actually bans limited liability partnerships."
Founding partner at AB and David Africa, David Ofosu-Dorte has stressed the need for Ghana to do a business impact analysis of bills passed into law in order to ensure its competitiveness in the African Continental Free Trade Area(AFCFTA).
He noted that there already exist certain legislations in the country which actually suppress the growth of businesses thus the need for a rethinking in the wake of the AFCFTA.
“The other entity I talk about is the Legislature. The problem is not exactly with the legislature but the entire approach where we do not realize the impact of legislation we make. There are Legislations existing and some of them we will continue making without analyzing their impact undermining the very thing we seek to achieve with the AFCFTA there are several examples of this
In fact, there are Legislations in this country that actually prevents entities from growing. A recent one was passed which actually bans limited liability partnerships. It’s an indirect way of saying that certain services and sectors cannot grow in simple terms."
Speaking on Monday, June 6, 2022, at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences Public Forum on the AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS, he further noted that the above is a backward way of looking at things, especially in a free trade environment where trade in services is being introduced.
Moreover, Mr. Ofosu-Dorte spoke about rethinking the cost of capital vs inflation indexing which he mentioned depicted how Banks price their loans. He thus noted that in a one continent market, if the lending rate say in Kenya is 12% and ours is 25% then it means we are not being competitive.
Also, he touched on the non-marketing mindset of the Ghanaian Business entrepreneur noting that our Businesses should take a step toward occupying appreciable mindshare of the product consumers, those who occupy the greater mindshare, especially in the current single continent economy will share their products over ours
Additionally, the legal practitioner mentioned the need to recognize the massive Legislative reforms to be made. He noted that the private sector is not paying much attention to that even though there is a lot to be done there, especially the GIPC law and reserving some places for Ghanaians amongst others.