A new study by the Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI) has revealed that the cost and duration of business registration in Ghana are significantly higher than official figures suggest, with bureaucratic bottlenecks and institutional overlaps driving entrepreneurs toward unlicensed intermediaries commonly known as goro boys.
The findings raise concerns about Ghana’s business environment at a time when private sector expansion and job creation are urgently needed.
Presenting the research to stakeholders, ILAPI researcher Stephen Dansu explained that the motivation behind the study was the growing economic strain on Ghanaian households and the alarming rate of unemployment. He noted that the inability of businesses, especially MSMEs, to grow and absorb labour has contributed to worsening living conditions.
As he put it, the problem has become impossible to ignore because “unemployment has become a critical issue in Ghana and about 850,000 people or Ghanaians have been pushed into poverty according to the World Bank as of 2022, and this is likely as a result of the inability of businesses to expand and employ.”
Dansu said ILAPI’s objective was to examine the regulatory barriers that restrict business growth, assess their impact on the transition from micro to small and medium-sized enterprises, and propose practical reforms to improve the business climate. He explained that the team wanted to understand, at the most basic level, how long it actually takes to secure a business certificate.
The findings were stark. According to him, “by the data, it has been revealed that 40.8% of the businesses… indicated that it can take them more than 1 month” to complete registration. He added that even among those who secured documentation earlier, “between 3 to 4 weeks, 22.8% said they were able to acquire the certificate… between 1 to 2 weeks, 13.8%… and below one week, just 17%.”
The report also revealed a significant cost discrepancy between the official ORC fees and the actual fees paid by entrepreneurs. The Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) pegs the registration of a business name at GHS 120, while standard incorporation ranges between GHS 600 and GHS 750, with an optional expedited service of GHS 400. In reality, however, the average entrepreneur pays much more.
Dansu revealed that “on average, one could spend about 1,030 Ghana cedis on acquiring the certificates.” This means many business owners are spending multiples of official fees, especially when intermediaries are involved.
A crucial driver of the inflated cost, the study found, is the dominance of goro boys, who act as middlemen between entrepreneurs and government agencies. Their services, though unofficial, have become deeply embedded in the registration ecosystem. Dansu said a striking majority of business owners rely on these intermediaries because of persistent delays and administrative frustrations. According to him, “about 84% of them… indicated that they use middlemen who are the goro boys for the acquisition of the certificates.”
The regulatory challenges extend far beyond cost and duration. Dansu described the business environment as one marked by institutional overlaps, where firms must navigate multiple agencies for approvals, permits and renewals. He explained that entrepreneurs often find themselves returning to the same institution for different stages of one process, while also shuttling between agencies that do not coordinate effectively. As he observed, “there is this form of overlaps when it comes to interacting with institutions in the acquisition of certificates, permits and licenses.”
The complexity of this institutional maze is reflected in the number of certifications required in various industries. According to ILAPI, manufacturing firms may need up to 13 different licenses, ICT businesses about six, and hospitality and tourism operators an average of ten.
These requirements, Dansu argued, make the early stages of business growth extremely difficult. He noted that the transition from micro to small enterprise status remains a daunting challenge, as “it’s only 44.64% that can transition from micro to small,” meaning that out of every ten micro businesses, only about four manage to scale up. The difficulty is even more pronounced in the full transition from micro to medium enterprise, which he said stands at just “28.2%,” translating to roughly two or three out of ten.
Dansu emphasized that these barriers limit expansion and weaken job creation potential, undermining national development goals. He argued that the regulatory framework can only support entrepreneurship if processes are simplified, digitized and decentralized. According to him, ILAPI believes that streamlining institutional mandates, reducing overlaps and fully deploying digital systems will address many of the bottlenecks. He stressed that these reforms are essential, saying that digitization is not simply an upgrade but a necessary intervention “to avoid the interference of the middlemen.”
