GIPC is now GIPA. There is a 24-hour expedited service.

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre is now the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority. The change is more than a name. Registration, certificate renewal and the automatic immigrant quota now sit with an Authority, and there is a 24-hour expedited service.

For foreign principals, GIPA still sits on top of ordinary incorporation. You register at the Office of the Registrar of Companies, complete beneficial ownership and tax identity, then register with GIPA before you begin operating. Capital transfer is confirmed through your dealer bank to the Bank of Ghana.

Act 1173 repealed the GIPC Act, 2013 (Act 865). There is no general minimum foreign capital for non-trading joint ventures or wholly foreign-owned enterprises. Trading still has a floor: US$500,000 cash equity, and at least 75 percent of skilled employees must be Ghanaian. Capital goods do not count toward that trading floor. Sector licences still set their own capital rules. Portfolio investment and certain diaspora cases are treated differently. Registration with GIPA remains mandatory before a foreign-owned enterprise begins operating, and renewal is now annual.

Certificate renewal and the automatic immigrant quota are part of staying in good standing. Miss them and you find out later, usually when a bank declines your account.

The 24-hour expedited service is useful when the rest of the sequence is already clean. It does not replace name search, tax identity, capital confirmation or the resident director.