The Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FABAG) has called on President John Dramani Mahama to suspend the Ghana Standards Authority’s (GSA) newly introduced Ghana EasyPASS Programme, warning that the mandatory pre-export conformity verification regime will increase the cost of imports, place additional financial pressure on businesses and ultimately drive up consumer prices.
The programme, which took effect on July 1, 2026, requires importers of a wide range of regulated goods, including chemicals, plastics, textiles, base metals, machinery, vehicles and used products, to obtain a Certificate of Conformity from the GSA before shipment to Ghana.
According to documentation from the Authority, the verification process, which includes documentary review, laboratory testing and physical inspection, is intended to protect consumers and the environment, assure conformity to Ghanaian and international standards, and expedite customs clearance for compliant shipments.
The scheme replaces the previous arrangement under which third-party bodies such as Bureau Veritas and Intertek managed conformity checks, bringing certification directly under the GSA’s EasyPass portal.
FABAG, in a statement signed off by its leadership, described the timing and structure of the programme as an added burden that businesses can ill afford.
The association argued that the policy amounts to “another tax by another name,” contending that importers will be compelled to absorb additional certification fees, administrative expenses and shipment delays before goods even leave their country of origin, costs it said will ultimately be transferred to Ghanaian consumers through higher prices.
The association questioned the need for a new layer of verification when the Food and Drugs Authority, the GSA, the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority already conduct inspections and quality assurance on imported goods.
Rather than introduce a parallel programme, FABAG said existing institutions should be strengthened if operational gaps exist.
It further noted that the private sector had previously rejected similar conformity verification schemes after extensive consultation, and said it found it regrettable that a policy businesses had consistently opposed was being revived.
FABAG situated its objection within a wider complaint about the accumulation of regulatory and cost pressures on businesses, citing the introduction of the AI Publican system and recent increases in electricity and water tariffs, alongside persistently high interest rates, exchange rate volatility and elevated transport and borrowing costs.
The association argued that the government cannot simultaneously pursue an improved ease-of-doing-business agenda, an inflation-reduction target and increased investment while layering on measures that raise the cost of imported raw materials and finished goods.
The association has formally urged the President, John Dramani Mahama, to direct the GSA to withdraw the policy and re-engage the business community in consultations to find what it termed practical solutions that protect consumers without imposing avoidable costs.
FABAG also called on business associations, chambers of commerce, importers, manufacturers and distributors to unite against the programme.
For its part, the GSA has framed EasyPass as a consumer protection and trade facilitation mechanism rather than a revenue measure, noting that goods found compliant receive expedited customs clearance while non-compliant shipments are rejected or returned under a Non-Conformity Report.
The Authority’s guidance outlines three compliance routes: open verification for any trader, a registration route for goods with an established conformity history, and a licensing route for approved manufacturers, designed, it says, to calibrate the intensity of inspection to risk and reduce friction for regular importers over time.
The dispute sets up a test of how the Mahama administration balances its stated business-friendly posture against a regulatory programme its own standards agency considers central to consumer protection and product safety enforcement.
Ghana’s importers now face a compliance deadline that is already in force, even as the policy’s future remains the subject of direct appeal to the presidency.
