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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged the business community on the African continent to seize every opportunity to ensure that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement becomes a success.
President Akufo-Addo, at a Ghana-South Africa business forum in Accra yesterday, said although governments would provide the policies, the success or otherwise of the agreement depended largely on the business community.
According to the President, the AfCFTA was a sure pathway to economic growth and prosperity of the continent and stressed the need for all stakeholders to work together to ensure its success.
Citing example with Europe where intra-continental trade represented about 72 per cent of the continent’s combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he said it was not encouraging that intra-Africa trade formed only 16 per cent of the continent’s combined GDP.
“We need to focus on what we can do to push intra-Africa trade,” he said, adding that “the success of the AfCFTA is critical in our capacity to build a prosperous continent.”
President Akufo-Addo further stressed the need for Ghana and South Africa to lead the efforts to ensure a successful implementation of the agreement.
He advised the business community to participate in shaping governments’ policies to ensure that the right policies were implemented to ensure that countries enjoyed the full benefits of the agreement.
“Everybody has everything to gain by seeing the success of the AfCFTA,” he said and stressed the need for countries to “work together in synergy and in an atmosphere of trust.”
Touching on the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said his administration was determined to ensure that vaccines were produced locally.
He commended South Africa for leading the efforts to develop vaccines for citizens on the continent.
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, expressed his country’s readiness to partner Ghana in areas such as gold and oil refineries, renewable energy, ICT, agro-processing, among others.
“We need to intensify efforts to build strong industrial bases and expand our exports to create more employment opportunities, especially young people”.
“Bilateral trade between Ghana and South Africa is growing which is pleasing. But I will like to see more heightened growth. I will like to see us grow more exponentially,” he said.
President Ramaphosa urged the business community in both countries to take advantage of the opportunities available to increase trade and investment among themselves.
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