The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) has given a lead to a possible review of some of the laws underpinning its establishment and operations for effective facilitation of businesses into the country.
Currently, the GIPC is hoping that the law regulating technology transfer into Ghana, thus Legislative Instrument (L.I.) 1547 is reviewed. The GIPC has forwarded the draft document for review to Cabinet and Parliament for consideration and approval.
The Head of the Legal Division of GIPC, Naa Lamle Orleans-Lindsay, disclosed this during a presentation at the 2nd Media Orientation Workshop, 2022 edition, held in Accra last week Thursday.
She said the move to seek a review of the law on technology transfer was because the L.I. 1547 had become obsolete, as it had been in existence since 1992. According to her, the dynamics of doing business had rapidly changed since the law was introduced in 1992, hence, the review would enable the L.I. to reflect current and best practices.
“The GIPC itself is looking at a review of its law and this law contains provisions of TTA (Technology Transfer Agreement), the Act itself, and the regulations seeking to improve it and make it compliant with best practices, so that it is useful to local companies and foreign companies seek to provide services to local companies.
“We have had extensive stakeholder engagements with the private and public sector over the past couple of years. We have put together a draft document and we are seeking to have this document obtain Cabinet approval [and] that is where we are at the moment,’ she said.
Mrs. Orleans-Lindsay explained that the GIPC is mandated to register, keep records and monitor all technology transfer agreements in the country and these responsibilities are governed by the GIPC Act 2013, Act 865, and the Technology Transfer Regulations 1992, L.1.1547.
Nonetheless, she added that technology transfer must meet certain standards, thus services to be provided must not be easily and freely available in Ghana, local staff must be trained in the services offered by the TTA as per a Training Schedule, and Ghana law must govern the interpretation of the TTA, taxes on royalties must be borne by the Transferor. “Failure to register a technology transfer agreement with the GIPC is a breach of GIPC Act 2013, Act 865 and L. I 154 liable to a summary conviction,” she urged.
Mrs. Orleans-Lindsay further stated that the Centre is working closely with the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Revenue Authority to ensure compliance with technology transfer legislation as well as close collaboration with other stakeholders to ensure compliance by companies with Act 865 and L.I. 1547
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Yaw Amoateng Afriyie GIPC added that the Centre is poised to attract the needed investments into critical sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, tourism, housing, transport, extractives, infrastructure, aquaculture, technology, and services of the economy. So far, 6, 000 businesses are captured in the GIPC database, but about half the number in the last two years had renewed their licenses with the Centre.
The purpose of this year’s media engagement was to educate the media on the registration and compliance requirements of GIPC, including monitoring, renewals, exemptions, quotations, TTAs, Bilateral Investment Treaties, and Aftercare Service division.
