According to Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, Nigerian traders interested in operating in Ghana will no longer be required to raise a minimum capital of 300,000 dollars.
The decision comes after the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry tried to expel all foreigners operating in wholesale in Ghanaian markets during a taskforce excise in 2014.
This paved way to the setting up of an inter-agency task force established to enforce the new Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) law 865 which mandates petty trading as the sole prerogative of Ghanaians.
The task force is made up of representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry, Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service(GIS), Ghana Investment Promotion Centre(GIPC), Accra Metropolitan Assembly(AMA) Registrar General’s Department, Social Security and National Insurance Trust(SSNIT, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)– Domestic Customs and the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA).
But the new protocol for the issuance of ECOWAS biometric cards entitles ECOWAS citizens to work in any country in the sub region without any hindrance.
In 2016, ECOWAS citizens would be issued with the regional bloc’s biometric identification card to ensure free movements of persons and to promote security in the West African sub-region. During the visit by the Nigerian President Mahammadu Buhari, the Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, said in a forum “I think that our continued pursuit of greater regional integration is resolving the issue by itself. As you are aware we have agreed on the protocol for the issuance of the ECOWAS biometric cards to all ECOWAS citizens and that ECOWAS biometric card entitles ECOWAS citizens not only to visit but to reside and work in each other’s countries.”
According to President Mahama all attempts to expel Nigerian traders in Ghana automatically have been suspended. He further stressed, that the card would entitle automatically not only Nigerians but all ECOWAS citizens to the right of abode in Ghana if they decided to do so and that automatically will trigger an amendment of the law that requires the capital of 300,000 dollars.
By: Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen | A1radioonline.com | Ghana
