After the Companies Bill, 2013 was laid in Parliament in 2015, the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF) sought the indulgence of His Lordship the Speaker to respectfully withhold discussions and consideration of the Bill to allow for substantive consultations and discussions by the private sector. Subsequent to His Lordship’s approval, the Federation undertook a nationwide engagement for deepened discussions by private sector and other interested constituents who would be affected by the Bill to review the tenets of it and how to address the constraints and gaps they see in the Bill.
With sponsorship from Good Governance Africa (GGA) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), PEF commenced the input collation exercise by constituting a Committee of Experts with representation from the Ghana Bar Association, Institute of Chartered Accounts, the GIMPA Law School, Securities Dealers Association, Institute of Board of Directors and a technical expert on business development, to review, consolidate and fine-tune inputs from variety of sources and sectors of the private sector for submission to Parliament.
As part of this process, PEF organized two stakeholder workshops in Kumasi ( to cater for the northern sector of Ghana) and Accra ( Southern Sector) in July 2015 involving not only its members associations and chambers but other private sector stakeholders and relevant professional bodies to discuss the provisions of the Bill and make informed inputs to enrich the Bill and ensure that the final law caters adequately for the needs of the private sector, that when passed into law, the Companies Law will encourage business growth and boost investor confidence in the country for generations to come, among other relevant and important impact of the Law.
PEF and the Committee of Experts presented the report detailing recommendations from the consultations and workshops held around the nation to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on August 28th 2015.
For full discussions of the Report and other tenets of the Companies Bill, PEF with support from our two Sponsors GGA and KAS, organized a Retreat with various stakeholders invited to join members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Expert Committee On Business Law Reforms (the original Committee on the Bill chaired by Justice Date-Baah), Members Of The PEF Expert Committee, the Attorney General`s Department, the Registrar General`s Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ghana Stock Exchange, representatives of PEF Member Associations and other relevant stakeholders to further discuss the recommendations that have been proposed.
The very successful Retreat was chaired by Mr. Kwame Pianim, an astute Economist and business consultant. The meeting highlighted concerns of the stakeholders present at the meeting to help build consensus for a credible and long lasting legal document. Members of parliament, Experts and private sector people shared perspectives on sections of the Bill which needs redress and reconsideration.The Retreat was held at MAC-DIC Royal plaza Hotel, Koforidua on SATURDAY 20th February, 2016.