Companies and Insolvency Bill long overdue – Dr. Bawumia

 

The Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has assured the business community in Ghana of the passage of Companies Bill and Insolvency Bill as well as the New Payment System Bills. This came as a relieve to stakeholders in the business community when the H.E Dr. Bawumia mentioned in his remarks as the Special Guest of Honour for the 69^th Annual New Year School and Conference of the College of Education, University of Ghana.

The awaited Companies and Insolvency Bills which handled by the Committee of Expert led by Justice Prof. Data-Bah and the Technical Committee of the Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors(GARIA) is yet to go through Parliament.

Speaking at opening ceremony the 69^th Annual New Year School and Conference of the College of Education, Dr. Bawumia mentioned that the enabling regulations intended to protect businesses are outdated which needs reform to bring them in line with modern practices. He added that, the Government is committed to the passage of the Bills.

The Vice President in his remarks stressed that in an effort to ensure that His Excellency Nana Akufo Addo’s vision of building Ghana beyond aid becomes a reality, there is the need to also strengthen the financial sector for a more inclusive financial system.

“The introduction of the interoperability of payment system in the financial sector for a more inclusive financial system. Having an interoperable payment system between banks, mobile operators and other financial sector players enables people to make payments to anyone else in a convenient, affordable, fast, seamless and secure way with one account” Dr. Bawumia said.

In addition, among the list of activities this year, the Vice President highlighted some of the Bills that would be sent to the Parliament in 2018 for them to be passed into an Act. This includes but not limited to only; “New Payment System Bill, New Companies Act, Insolvency Act …” among others.

President of the Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors (GARIA), Mr. Felix Addo expressed that the Companies and Insolvency Bill is long overdue which requires a conscious effort by all stakeholders to push for its passage to enable businesses in Ghana to operate effectively thereby restoring investor confidence in the economy. He explained that, currently Ghana has drawn back from 108 in the “Ease of Doing Business” to 120 out of 190 countries globally according to the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report. He added that most of the critical indicators such as; protecting minority investors, resolving insolvency, starting a business, getting credit, trade across boarders among the 10 indicators requires a concerted effort by the government to streamline some of the its activities to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Mr. Felix Addo alluded to some of the countries such as Mauritius, Rwanda in Africa with sustained reforms recently ranked (number 1 and 25), (number 2 and 41), in Sub-Saharan Africa and World respectively.

He added that when businesses are in distress, it does not necessary imply they should be liquidated immediately, they could be restructured to become viable unless otherwise they can no longer be economic viable. He alluded to Ghana Airways, Bank for Housing among others which he cited.

 

Meanwhile, the Vice President highlighted in his remarks the creation of 100,000 jobs for graduates through the Nation Builders Corps, One District One Factory, One Village One Dan – Norther Development Authority to issue adverts for procurement, Land Digitization, E-Passports and E-Visas, Special Prosecutor commences prosecutions among others in 2018.

 

By: Ghanadailies.com/News