ELS: MBN360 BUSINESS
The Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FABAG) has escalated its institutional opposition against the country’s updated import regulatory framework by issuing an urgent, direct appeal to His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama.
In an official statement, the Association called for a suspension of the newly introduced Ghana Easy Pass Programme, warning that the mandatory import verification regime, spearheaded by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), introduces an unsustainable financial and bureaucratic burden that will inevitably destabilize local enterprises.
FABAG argued that the Programme will also disrupt supply chain timelines, and ultimately force a sharp upward adjustment in consumer prices across the republic, especially as private sector operators are navigating a complex domestic market defined by high operational overheads and persistent currency pressures.
“This policy is simply adding another tax by another name. These costs will inevitably be passed on to the Ghanaian consumer through higher prices. The private sector cannot continue to absorb an endless stream of new costs without serious consequences for investment, employment and consumer prices”Food and Beverages Association of Ghana
The Association’s push to the presidency signals a breakdown in regulatory consensus between industrial market actors and state standardization agencies. The association is seeking a top-down policy freeze to insulate the importing community from what it describes as “an aggressive and unnecessary regulatory overreach that threatens overall commercial survival and consumer purchasing power.”
A central pillar of FABAG’s condemnation rests on the argument that the Ghana Easy Pass Programme represents a flagrant duplication of existing state regulatory mechanisms, expressing surprise at the GSA’s decision to mandate a pre-export conformity verification regime for imported products destined for the local market.
According to the industry group, the scope of the new program completely overlaps with the active, legally binding mandates of several pre-existing state institutions that are already fully funded and properly empowered to manage national product safety, quality control, and border enforcement.
The association highlighted that agencies such as the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), and even the Ghana Standards Authority itself through its traditional downstream channels, already run exhaustive inspections, structural evaluations, and laboratory testing on inbound commodities.
FABAG’s leadership maintained that if the country is currently grappling with operational inefficiencies or technical gaps within these established institutions, the logical solution must be to structurally reinforce and resource those specific bodies, rather than bypassing them or adding an entirely separate, redundant layer of clearing bureaucracy that complicates the trade ecosystem.
“It is difficult to understand why government would seek to impose another layer of bureaucracy and cost on importers when existing regulatory institutions are already adequately mandated to ensure product safety and standards”Food and Beverages Association of Ghana
This operational redundancy, the association argues, serves no clear public safety utility and instead acts as an artificial barrier to trade facilitation, penalizing transparent corporate entities that have historically complied with all sovereign border protocols.
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Escalating Cost Structures
Beyond the operational delays caused by administrative bureaucracy, FABAG delivered a detailed breakdown of the immediate financial risks that the Ghana Easy Pass Programme introduces to the domestic marketplace, classifying the new pre-verification regime as an indirect fiscal measure.
Under the mandated guidelines of the program, importers are required to pay premium certification fees, absorb substantial secondary administrative expenses, and manage heavy compliance costs within the country of origin before any commercial cargo is legally permitted to depart for Ghanaian ports.
These compounding pre-export costs are further worsened by the high probability of prolonged shipment delays at international departure hubs as foreign suppliers struggle to clear the GSA’s new verification hurdles. FABAG noted that the private sector is completely incapable of absorbing these continuous, compounding cost injections.
Importers and distributors operating within the current macroeconomic environment are already managing thin profit margins due to high interest rates, steep utility tariffs, expensive domestic transportation, exchange rate volatility, and the generally high cost of commercial borrowing.
Consequently, any new regulatory fee imposed at the origin will inevitably be passed directly down the commercial supply chain, forcing local merchants to raise retail prices and placing an unfair financial burden on regular Ghanaian consumers.
FABAG also highlighted a major contradiction between the GSA’s new enforcement drive and the government’s own stated macroeconomic goals, pointing out that the government cannot genuinely claim to be actively improving the ease of doing business while introducing complexities that make operating a business far more expensive and legally uncertain.
For FABAG, it is economically inconsistent for an administration to publicly pledge to drive down national inflation while simultaneously introducing policies that artificially inflate the landing cost of essential imported industrial raw materials and finished consumer goods.
Furthermore, the food and beverage leadership expressed deep concern that the country has chosen to revive an administrative policy concept that was already thoroughly reviewed and overwhelmingly rejected by the national business community during previous rounds of stakeholder consultations.
The association noted that the historical objections raised by chambers of commerce, local manufacturers, and trade groups remain entirely valid today.
To prevent widespread industrial friction, FABAG called on President Mahama to immediately instruct the Ghana Standards Authority to completely withdraw the policy and initiate fresh, transparent, and comprehensive consultations with the entire private sector coalition.
The Association concluded with a powerful rallying call urging all chambers of commerce, trade associations, manufacturers, and distributors to stand completely united against the implementation of the regime, emphasizing that regulatory actions must align with the practical operational realities of the enterprises that anchor national employment and economic growth.
