Govt commits to improve business environment
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has reiterated the government’s commitment to create an enabling environment for businesses to flourish in the country.
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He explained that the government would achieve that by implementing aggressive programmes in several sectors of the economy including agriculture, renewable energy, and the financial sector among others.
“These reforms are expected to help create jobs and stimulate growth and create wealth for the citizenry in the country,” Dr Bawumia said this at a meeting on Wednesday, September 6, in Accra.
The meeting
The meeting was organised for finance ministers from seven African countries that are signitories to the G-20 Compact with Africa (CWA) initiative. The CWA is a G-20 partnership programme to support the African Union Agenda 2063.
The programme engages African countries in building a reliable financial and macroeconomic framework in order to expand investment opportunities, create employment and push for more sustainable infrastructure on the continent.
The meeting addressed the critical role that the CWA could play in the economic transformation agendas of compact countries. It also considered how to overcome some challenges in the CWA’s implementation.
Building a friendly business environment
Dr Bawumia observed that the pillars of the compact were in line with the government’s overriding goals of building a very friendly business environment in the country.
“For example, under the microenvironment framework pillar of the compact, we are focused on prudent expenditure management to reduce expenditure, broadening the tax net, enhancing tax compliance to reverse debt dynamics,” he said.
He said the government was also pursuing domestic debt re-profiling to lengthen its maturity period and reduce the cost of credit in the country.
Ghana business e-registry
The Vice-President explained that under the business framework, the government was creating Ghana business e-registry and developing model contract in line with international best practice.
“Under financial framework pillar of the compact, we are reducing the government’s dominance in the domestic debt market and promoting cooperate issuance,” he stated.
“While each of the CWA countries face specific challenges and are at different paces of development, the CWA also reinforces that in many respects, we face common challenges and that it makes sense for us to learn from each other.”
He observed that the CWA provides yet another opportunity for countries signatory to the compact to work together as CWA countries and also with their international partners.
He cautioned various African countries to remember that the aid landscape was shifting and that aid inflows from traditional donors were dwindling across Africa.
“This surely means that we must begin to contemplate a future beyond aid, and also a future with enhanced productive capacity, with a robust private sector, and one where our infrastructure gaps are met.
“We must create space for our private sector to thrive and provide the jobs and finance needed to grow our economies. And we must create the environment to mobilise domestic financing.
This is a prospect that my President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is most keen to promote and this meeting is an important step towards building that future,” he added.
Improving macroeconomic framework
The Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, said under the compact, the government intended to improve the macroeconomic and business framework in the country.
Though the G-20 compact seeks to increase private investment, as well as improve infrastructure deficit, he said, the government was using the same approach in Ghana to help bring the economy back on track.
Data from the Africa Development Bank shows that Africa needs over US$340 billion to improve infrastructure deficit on the continent. About US$8billion of the said amount is required to improve infrastructure in Ghana.
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Mr Ofori-Atta said, “the compact with Africa was an initiative of the G-20 that can only be applauded. At the same time, we need to own and drive implementation of the CWA. We need to be ambitious and bold.”
“For our government, there is a sense of urgency for economic transformation in order to meet the needs of citizens in a rapidly changing world. Let us use the compact to harness our transformational opportunities,” he added. —