Ghana’s technical working committee charged with producing the Ghana Startup Bill is back to work after some break. 

The Technical Working Committee which was set up in October last year by the Ministry of Business Development, through its agency, National Entrepreneurship and Innovations Program (NEIP), has previously held series of stakeholder consultations leading to the drafting of the bill. 

What Is The Progress So Far?

Yesterday, January 29, the committee, again, held a meeting at the PEF conference room at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Greenhill, Accra. The coordinator of the project Mr. Sherif Ghali said the committee did engage stakeholders last year to draft the act and that the project is now in the final phase. 

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“Currently, we have the 3rd draft of the act which have gone through lots of stakeholder engagements. We are now working to finalize it and to do our last engagements with the startups and other relevant stakeholders before we present it to sector minister ” he indicated

The committee is required to complete its work by the end of February 2021 and then send the draft bill to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Attorney General, Parliament and the Office of the President.

How To Follow The Action

A new website, http://www.ghanastartupact.org./, has been set up and it is helping to track the progress of this journey. 

The Scope Of The Proposed Bill

The committee, which has a mandate to within three months engage widely with all relevant stakeholders to come out with a draft Ghana Start-up Act, will among other things deliberate to;

• Set up an incentive framework for the creation and development of Start-ups in Ghana to promote creativity, innovation, and the use of new technologies in achieving a strong added value and competitiveness at the national, regional, and district levels.
• Provide the legal backing for business starting and promotion of Start-ups for decent job and wealth creation, in accordance with the SDG 8, among others.
• The committee will then present its final work — the draft Ghana Start-up Act, to the NEIP and subsequently to the Ministry of Business Development, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Attorney General, Parliament of Ghana, and the Office of the President, after which they will run series of advocacy to ensure the Act is passed by Ghana’s legislature.

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“Startups are the basics to create jobs and wealth in this country,” Dr Awa said. “We want to help start young people grow and this Startup Bill will be able to help them [youth] own their businesses and not look up to government for job; because we all know that the jobs are not in the public sector, they are in the private sector.

“So we [government] want to create an enabling environment in the private sector that can make it attractive to young people for them to engage in,” he emphasised.

Read also: Kenya Becomes Africa’s Latest Country To Consider A Startup Act. Here Is What It Looks Like

The Era of Startup Act

The first specific startup law globally was passed in Italy in 2012, and Africa is increasingly catching on. Tunisia and Senegal are the only countries in Africa that have passed the Act, although plans are being mulled by Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali to follow suit.

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Ghana’s Startup Act’s drafting committee is made up of notable bodies such as Ghana’s National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (NIEP), Ghana Chamber of Young Entrepreneurs (GCYE), Ghana Start-up Network (GSN), Ghana Hubs Network (GHN), i4Policy and Private Enterprise Federation (PEF) with funding and technical support from GIZ Make IT.

The Technical Working Committee, made up of experts and the ecosystem enablers was equally set up to champion the advocacy action for the development and enactment of the proposed Ghana Startup Act.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer

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