Vice-President pays surprise visit to Registrar-General's Department

The Registrar-General’s Department Wednesday received a surprise guest - Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.

According to Aides, Dr Bawumia’s visit was to apprise himself with the processes of business registration in Ghana.

As part of his elections campaign, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana repeatedly promised that a New Patriotic Party (NPP) government would build a business-friendly economy.

Wednesday’s visit was in furtherance of that objective, the Aides say.

They say the Vice-President wanted undiluted information on whatever frustrations Ghanaians desiring to register business were faced with.

Consequently, he interacted with people who had thronged the offices of the Registrar General’s Department to process their registration papers.

They told Dr. Bawumia that it took months to have their registration papers processed and the needed clearance given to allow to transact business with their companies.

The biggest challenge, the applicants pointed out, is the network failures of the department.

They expressed the hope that the Vice-President would intervene and make the process less cumbersome.

Dr. Bawumia also interacted with the Registrar-General, Mrs Gifty Oware, who laid out a number of challenges that frustrate the speedy registration of companies.

She said the department has only nine lawyers who have been on strike since October last year.

These lawyers have to review all applications for registration of companies to be sure they conform with the law governing company registration in the country.

The Vice-President expressed the hope that his vision of making Ghana the most business-friendly country in Africa would be realized.

He encouraged the Registrar-General to draw lessons from Rwanda which is currently the most business-friendly place on the continent.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com