The government is gearing up to reassess the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act concerning foreign involvement in the retail business within Ghana.
Under Section 28 of the GIPC Act, foreigners aiming for joint ventures are mandated to present a capital investment of $200,000. Individual foreigners intending to engage in retail business within Ghana must provide $1 million.
During a meeting with the Ghana-Turkey Parliamentary Association, Yusif Sulemana, the Ranking Member on the Trade and Industry Committee of Parliament, advocated for a revision of the law to enhance bilateral trade relations.
The Bole Bamboi lawmaker highlighted the challenges posed by the current requirements of the Act, particularly emphasizing the significant capital demand, which he said could hinder Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from investing, especially in sectors like IT where technology transfer is crucial.
He mentioned that the GIPC has proposed amendments, which are currently under review by the Finance Committee with support from the Trade Committee. He said the aim is to ensure flexibility in the regime to encourage SMEs to contribute to the Ghanaian economy.
“An SME coming in with $1 million is a huge sum of money, and that is the problem, especially in the IT sector. They don’t bring in capital; they bring in technology and help transfer the technology to our people. So, this has been tabled by the GIPC, and I think it is with the Finance Committee, and the Trade Committee is joining them for us to look at it to ensure we are able to make the regime a little bit flexible for SMEs to invest in our economy.”
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