The Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FABAG) has appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to immediately suspend the Ghana Standards Authority’s (GSA) Ghana EasyPASS Programme, arguing that the policy will increase the cost of doing business and ultimately push up consumer prices.
The association contends that the proposed mandatory pre-export conformity verification system will impose additional financial and administrative burdens on importers at a time when businesses are already grappling with elevated operating costs.
The Ghana Easy Pass Programme requires selected imported goods to be inspected, tested and certified in their country of origin before shipment to Ghana to ensure compliance with the country’s standards and technical regulations.
However, in a strongly worded statement issued on July 6, FABAG urged government to halt the programme, insisting that Ghana already has adequate regulatory institutions responsible for quality assurance and import inspections.
“Mr. President, stop the Ghana Standards Authority’s (GSA) Ghana Easy Pass Conformity Programme before it hurts businesses and consumers,” the association stated.
According to FABAG, introducing another layer of mandatory certification effectively amounts to an additional cost for importers without delivering significant regulatory value.
“This policy is simply adding another tax by another name,” the statement added.
The association argued that institutions including the Ghana Standards Authority, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) already perform quality assurance, inspection and compliance functions on imported products.
Rather than introducing another certification regime, FABAG said government should strengthen the capacity of these existing institutions to improve efficiency and enforcement.
The association warned that the proposed programme would compel importers to pay additional conformity assessment fees, absorb higher administrative costs and contend with shipment delays before goods are exported to Ghana.
According to FABAG, these additional costs would inevitably be passed on to consumers through higher retail prices, further increasing the cost of living.
The group also noted that businesses are yet to fully recover from recent economic shocks and continue to face mounting pressures from rising electricity and water tariffs, elevated lending rates, exchange rate volatility, expensive credit and higher transportation costs.
FABAG argued that reintroducing a conformity verification programme previously opposed by the business community sends an unfavourable signal to investors and runs counter to government’s stated objective of improving Ghana’s business environment.
“Government cannot genuinely speak about improving the ease of doing business while simultaneously introducing measures that make doing business more expensive,” the association said.
FABAG is therefore calling on President Mahama to direct the Ghana Standards Authority to suspend implementation of the programme and engage the private sector in broader stakeholder consultations before proceeding.
It further urged business associations, importers, manufacturers and chambers of commerce to collectively oppose policies they believe unnecessarily increase the cost of doing business.
“The time has come for government to listen to the voice of businesses. Ghana needs policies that encourage enterprise, not policies that punish it,” the association concluded.
