Bawumia interacting with the Registrar General, Jemima Oware
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia yesterday paid an unannounced visit to the Registrar General’s Department to obtain firsthand information about its activities.
He left his office at the Flagstaff House by 11:15 am and headed towards the office of the Registrar General located near the Ministries’ enclave.
He denied himself of the comfort of the tight security and blurring siren that usually comes with his convoy and had to endure the strain and discomfort of the heavy traffic that Accra residents go through each passing day.
Apart from his official vehicle, there were two other vehicles in his convoy.
The journey, which ordinarily would have taken him less than five minutes to make, took 15 minutes.
By 11:30 am, Dr Bawumia and his team, mostly made up of his office staff, had arrived at the Registrar General’s Department.
He walked into the office without his official body guard [aide-de-camp] ostensibly not to attract attention to himself.
His first port of call was the lobby where many people had gathered to register their companies.
That was when many people surprisingly got to know that the vice president was in the building.
During his interaction with the people, some expressed frustration at the bureaucratic bottlenecks and long-winding processes they go through to register companies.
Many were those who said it takes them between one and three months just to get the registration of a company completed, with others expressing concern about the poor network that is usually associated with the Department’s servers [computers].
All who saw Dr Bawumia wanted to either shake hands with him or take a snapshot with him, as he beamed with smiles.
After listening to the concerns of the people, the vice president called on the head of the Registrar General’s Department, Jemima Oware, who was equally surprised about his visit.
She narrated some of the challenges her outfit was going through, which she said had negatively affected their operations.
Chief among them was the strike action embarked upon by state attorneys over condition of service since October last year. According to her, all the nine lawyers [state attorneys] who review and work on applications had had to lay down their tools to press home their demand for improved conditions of service.
Speaking to journalists after the visit, the vice president expressed grave concern about the delays associated with the registration of companies in the country.
He stressed the need to expedite action on the processes leading to the registration to save time and stress since it affects business and best practice.
Dr Bawumia expressed government’s commitment to standardizing the registration of companies and doing of business in Ghana in line with that of Rwanda – a country currently ranked the most business-friendly country on the African continent.
At the end of the working visit, he said, “It was a fulfilled visit and there will be follow-up discussions.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu