GIPC points finger at banks, others

The attitude of some banks that demand residence and work permits before opening bank accounts for foreign investors is a major bottleneck impeding the country’s investment promotion, Augustine Otoo, Director, Investor Service, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), has said.

He also faulted some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) -- Registrar General’s Department, Trade Ministry, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, and others -- whose demands and processes sometimes frustrate the Centre’s goal of investment facilitation.

“The Investor Service Division has noticed that due to the lack of clear understanding of the GIPC’s mandate and investment procedures, some sister-agencies tend to frustrate and make inappropriate demands of investors, thereby increasing the cost of doing business in the country.

“Investors get frustrated when opening accounts with some banks, which forms part of the business registration requirement. Dealing with banks becomes extremely difficult at times,” he said in Accra at the first inter-agency forum organised by GIPC, aimed at creating and adopting a common understanding of investment procedures.

He asked that banks freely accept companies that come to open accounts with them to ease the business registration process and facilitate the attraction of foreign direct investment.

“The GIPC, in facilitating investment promotion successfully in the country, relies on the efficient and effective performance and delivery of other sister-agencies to ensure investor satisfaction,” Mr. Otoo explained to B&FT in an interview.

He identified the lack of harmonised guidelines on various requirements by investment-related agencies as an obstacle to investment facilitation, and said the forum was to streamline inter-agency bottlenecks that lead to delays in the investment process.

However, an official from the Bank of Ghana in an interview with B&FT opined that such regulations are not meant to frustrate investors, but rather to keep a check on foreign investors and the quality of their investment inflows.

“It is an international regulation adopted to track money laundering operators.”
Banks are also required by regulation to collect a range of Know Your Customer (KYC) records from clients, and have to abide by the Central Bank’s anti-money laundering guidelines in foreign transactions.

Ghana at the moment is enjoying a lot of international attention and this is manifested in the World Banks’ ranking of the country as the fifth in sub-Saharan Africa -- and first in West Africa -- in its Ease of Doing Business 2011 report.

GIPC records show that the sum of the estimated cost of projects from FDI for the five- year period to 2010 amounted to US$ 12,845.78 million.

The estimates for the manufacturing sector accounted for 57.96 percent of the total estimated cost of all the 1505 projects in the period. This is followed by the building and construction sector (19.03 percent) and the the services sector, which registered 9.57 percent.

The first quarter of this year has witnessed continued high investment flows, with the total value of registered projects at GH 567.66 million. The Centre said jobs generated totalled 6,497.

The GIPC seminar brought together participants from various investment agencies, notably Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Trade and Finance, Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Immigration Service,

Ghana Free Zones Board, Ghana Export Promotion Council and Registrar General’s Department.
Others were Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, National Communications Authority, Ghana Standards Board, Food and Drugs Board, Association of Ghana Industries, Land Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Pharmacy Council, Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Public Utilities Regulatory Commission.