THE INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR REGULATION AND COMPETITION IN GHANA.pdf

Centre on Regulation and Competition WORKING PAPER SERIES Paper No. 46 THE INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR REGULATION AND COMPETITION IN GHANA Ernest Aryeetey University of Ghana December 2002 ISBN: 1-904056-45-8 Further details: Published by: Fiona Wilson, Centre Secretary Centre on Regulation and Competition, Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, Crawford House, Precinct Centre, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9GH, UK Tel: +44-161 275 2798 Fax: +44-161 275 0808 Email: crc@man.ac.uk Web: http://idpm.man.ac.uk/crc/ 1 THE INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR REGULATION AND COMPETITION IN GHANA Abstract There is a long history to regulation in Ghana, dating back to the colonial days when the regulation of mining land was perceived to be a tool used by the co- lonial government to protect large mining concessionaires from the intrusive activities of indigenous small scale and informal mining operations. Through- out the long period beginning from the 1960s to the early 1980s, when the state controlled most formal economic activities, the issue of regulation was taken for granted as the state developed only minimal structures for the pur- pose of regulating the interaction among different economic agents, without interfering too much with old regulations. Since economic reforms began in 1983, however, there has been a significant movement towards the establishment of formal regulations intended to ensure that the withdrawal of the state from the production of basic goods and ser- vices did not result in new private monopolies that exploited their market posi- tions, particularly against the poor. The political liberalization that later ac- companied economic reforms, was also used to entrench the development of regulatory institutions and policies, particularly with respect to the exploitation of natu