Cape Coast, May 18, GNA - The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr. George Aboagye, has said a Monitoring Task Force has been put in place to undertake a nation-wide exercise and would close down shops of non-compliant foreign business entities that flout Ghana's investment laws. He said this was as a result of reports received by the GIPC from certain sectors of the Ghanaian business community that some foreign investors/traders operating in the country are flouting its investment laws. Mr Aboagye said a nine-member Task Force for the Central Region to monitor and track activities of foreigners in the trading sector was inaugurated in Cape Coast.

The Task Force is made up of representatives of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the VAT Service, the Registrar General's Department, Social Security and Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and GIPC. The National Chairman of the Task Force, Mr. Pious Addai, said its main objective is to monitor the activities of foreign business operators in the country to ensure that Ghana's investment regulations are respected and complied with.

He said the Task Force will also monitor foreign investors in the trading sector to ensure the authenticity of their investment registration to gather information. Mr. Addai said the GIPC Act 478 does not bar non-Ghanaians from operating in the trading sector provided they make an initial equity capital investment of at least $300,000.00 in either cash or goods and employ a minimum of 10 Ghanaians. The Central Regional Minister, Mrs. Ama Benyiwa Doe, said the inauguration of the Regional Task Force was timely and that he hoped it would work arduously to streamline the actions of investors who do not comply with the GIPC.