Ghana: foreigners must have an initial capital of $300,000 and employ at least 10 Ghanaians before they can start any business in Ghana...Rev. Blamo. The new law by the Ghanaian authorities which demands that all Since the beginning of the exercise on Tuesday, foreign retail traders in Ghana, especially Nigerians, have lamented on the law which they considered “harsh” on them since the reality of the matter is that foreign traders in the country are also drivers of the nation’s economy. The law, Section 19(3) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act 478, 1994, states that “In the case of trading enterprise involving only the purchasing and selling of goods, which is either wholly or partly owned by a non-Ghanaian, there shall be an investment of foreign capital, or its equivalence in goods worth at least $300,000.00 by way of equity capital, and the enterprise shall employ at least 10 Ghanaians.” It was gathered that the law has been in the statutory code for years but has not been implemented until now. PANA reported that the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has been demanding action against the foreigners, saying they had been muscling out Ghanaians from the retail business. Ghana’s Daily Guide reported that most of the shops owned by foreigners at the Central Business District were locked by their owners who knew about the intention of the National Task Force to hit the markets while making sure that the implementation of the Ghana Investment Promotions (GIPC) Law is enforced. Members of the task force locked the shops with their special padlocks in the absence of the shop owners and it will remain so until they can prove that they have meet the standards laid down. “Foreigners operating in Ghana’s open markets were expected to stop their activities by June 20, 2012 or incur the wrath of the Ministry of Trade, which intends to apply the law after several protests by Ghanaian retailers. The three-month ultimatum for non-Ghanaians to vacate the market places ended a fortnight ago.” A representative of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) on the Task Force, Daniel Tenkorang, asserted that shops owned by foreigners have been mapped out for inspection. He stated that “the exercise would continue for the next two months to ensure that there are no foreigners in our markets who fight over space and businesses with indigenes.” In all there are about 1070 shops operated by non-Ghanaians across the country. The Inter Agency Task Force is made up of officials from the Registrar-General’s Department, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, the Ghana Revenue Authority, Police, Immigration Service, the Ministries of Trade and Industry, and Foreign Affairs. However, Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper reported that a Nigerian businessman trading in Ghana, Ndukaku Mbanefo, said, “They closed our shops because they said we did not comply with the government policy that requires every foreigner who wants to start business in Ghana to have an initial capital of $300, 000 and must employ 10 Ghanaians to work with him regardless of the size of the business. Even if it is just a small restaurant or a barber shop you must employ 10 Ghanaians and show evidence that you have $300,000 before you can start.” Mbanefo described the situation by saying “some Nigerian traders had to run away and locked up their shops when they saw the Ghanaian law enforcement agents coming but when the law enforcement agents got to the shops, they would relock the shops with their security padlocks. Their plan was to give out these shops abandoned by Nigerian businessmen to the Ghanaians.” Although, Ghana’s senior officials have declined that Nigerian were the main target of the exercise, many Nigerians have refused to subscribe to such opinion by stating categorically that they were primarily targeted in this exercise as preference were shown to other African foreign counterparts from Mali, Cote D’Ivoire, Niger, Cameroon.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 15:04:19 +0000
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