Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has described a growing imbalance that is pushing Ghanaian businesses out of their own markets, warning that current policies are tilting the playing field in favour of foreign dominance.
The warning follows a March 31 engagement between the Minority Caucus and the Ghana Employers’ Association, where industry leaders outlined mounting pressures across key sectors of the economy.
Leading a delegation that included Patricia Appiagyei, Jerry Ahmed Shaib, Kwaku Agyeman Kwarteng, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Michael Okyere Baafi, Fred Kyei Asamoah, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, Tweneboah Kodua Fokuo, John Darko, Frederick Addy, Gloria Owusu and Damata Ama Appianimaa Salam, Afenyo-Markin said the concerns point to deeper structural failures.
“The picture described by Council members is of an operating environment that consistently advantages foreign capital over domestic enterprise: in access to finance, in regulatory treatment and in the informal norms that govern market access,” he said.
He warned that the situation is not accidental but the result of policy choices.
“This is a policy outcome, and it is one that the Minority rejects,” he stated.
According to him, Ghana’s industrialisation agenda is at risk if local businesses remain unable to compete effectively.
“Ghana’s industrialisation agenda cannot be advanced while domestic manufacturers are structurally unable to compete in their own market,” he stressed.
The Minority Leader said the concerns raised by employers cut across multiple sectors, including mining, manufacturing, agriculture and trade, with many of the challenges traced to policy decisions taken without adequate consultation.
“The discussions… produced a consolidated account of an organised private sector operating under an accumulating burden of policy failures, most of them avoidable and many the direct product of legislative and regulatory decisions taken without genuine prior engagement with those most affected,” he said.
He criticised what he described as a pattern of exclusion in policymaking.
“Industry bodies reported submitting formal written representations on pending legislation, receiving no substantive response and then watching their concerns be disregarded as if they had never been raised,” he noted.
He added that consultation after decisions are taken does not meet the standard required for effective governance.
“Consultation that takes place after a decision has already been made is not consultation,” he said.
Beyond market access, the Minority warned that policy instability and regulatory uncertainty are discouraging investment and weakening local enterprise.
“The cumulative burden… has produced an effective tax rate that is, by independent analysis, among the highest of any comparable mining jurisdiction in the world,” he said, pointing to capital flight as a direct consequence.
The Caucus also raised concerns about the use of AI-driven systems at the ports, warning that flawed implementation is imposing unjust costs on businesses.
“In these cases, it is a system generating inflated assessments against businesses that were doing nothing wrong, at considerable cost to them,” he said.
Mr Afenyo-Markin stressed that while technology has potential, its deployment must meet strict standards.
“Any deployment of AI in a revenue or enforcement context must meet the relevant legal, technical, and procedural standards,” he said.
He said the Minority will push for stronger parliamentary oversight and policy reforms to address the concerns raised.
“Ghana’s employers are not asking for favours. They are asking for a state that engages before it acts, a regulatory environment that is stable and proportionate and a Parliament that takes the private sector seriously enough to defend it,” he said.
He added that on all fronts, the government has fallen short, and the Minority will hold it to account.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
