Ghana has secured funding and technical support to improve the country’s international trade infrastructure and boost business competitiveness under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The support will enable the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) to develop trading infrastructure across the various borders in the country.
MoTI, through the National AfCFTA Coordination Office, last Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with TradeMark Africa (TMA), a trade facilitation firm, to start enhancing the performance of the Abidjan-Lagos corridor to support intra-African trade.
A Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Herbert Krapa, signed on behalf of the Coordination Office, while the Board Chairman of TradeMark Africa, Erastus Mwencha, signed for the trade facilitation firm.
The signing ceremony also served as the official launch of the operations of TradeMark Africa in the country.
Collaboration
Addressing the event at Peduase in the Eastern Region, the caretaker Minister of Trade and Industry, Samuel Abu Jinapor, expressed satisfaction with the agreement, saying that it would pave the way for the two partners to collaborate to improve trade in Ghana.
He explained that AfCFTA had placed a historic responsibility on respective governments in Africa to ensure the success of the initiative, stressing that Ghana had secured technical and funding support to implement its joint border post projects.
He said the MoU captured the vision of African leaders and the aspiration of their citizens for the transformation of the continent as expressed in the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
He said the TradeMark Africa initiative was uniquely designed to ensure better custom operations and facilitation of trade, especially for the country’s trade corridors.
He noted that it was necessary to establish a functional joint border post that bridged the language barrier between Ghana and its Francophone neighbours.
He added that the government was committed to work closely with TradeMark Africa to deploy solutions that could transform the country’s transit corridors, especially the Noepe-Akanu joint border post, into a modern trade facilitation centre.
Intervention
The Secretary-General of AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, said it was exciting that TradeMark Africa was an African firm providing solutions to improve intra-African trade.
He said 15 years before the establishment of TradeMark Africa, it took 28 steps and between 12-15 days for goods to transit from Port of Mombasa in Kenya to Kampala in Uganda.
However, he said, currently it took a step and less than three days for goods to transit between the same distance, thanks to specific interventions and customs procedures by TradeMark Africa.
He said it was also possible for goods to transit from Abidjan to Lagos in just a day.
“I am very happy that TradeMark Africa is here in Accra to complement the efforts of the AfCFTA Secretariat and ECOWAS because about 70 per cent of trade in the West African sub-region is within the Abidjan-Lagos corridor,” he said.
Programming
Mr Mwencha stated that the launch of the trade facilitation firm followed a successful rebranding from the previous TradeMark East Africa to now TradeMark Africa.
He said with a continental approach, TradeMark Africa now offered an important opportunity to expand its impactful programming progressively, while supporting the aspirations of AfCFTA to unleash the impact of free trade in high value products.
“Our key aim remains trade facilitation, just like we have always done in the last 12 years in the east of Africa where we were founded and have had great milestones in our programmes,” he added.