Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, has called for intensified education on the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, as over a quarter have indicated their awareness of it.
According to him, the awareness level on AfCFTA among businesses is abysmal as this forms the basis for determining the returns they can harness from the Free Trade Area.
Speaking at the launch of the second wave of the COVID-19 Business Tracker Survey, he further noted that about 76 percent of the firms after some education believe the implementation of AfCFTA will bring major transformations to their businesses.
“We have just over a quarter of the Businesses indicating that, they were aware of the African Continental Free Trade Area. This, we thought was very important because, it is the basis by which the business can harness the returns associated with this agreement which has its secretariat situated in Ghana.
“About three-quarters of the large firms indicated that they were aware of the AfCFTA while only a quarter of the small and micro businesses were aware of this. While we had close to all the large firms being confident that the AfCFTA was going to lead to a transformation in their businesses, we have just about a two-thirds of the medium size enterprises indicating same”.
Additionally, Professor Anim indicated that, these findings have demanded requisite engagement with stakeholders tasked to educate the business community on opportunities inherent in the AfCFTA.
“The intended benefits of the AfCFTA are enormous and has been touted as such, so one would expect that firms and businesses should be aware. Once we found out this, we’ve taken steps to ensure that, we intensify sensitization on the AfCFTA to ensure that businesses and firms in Ghana can leverage and benefit from the returns associated with it”.
The Ghana Statistical Service has disclosed that only 134,000 businesses are currently aware of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, making up 26.2 percent of firms nationwide.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement is set to commence in January 2021 with an estimated potential of boosting both intra-African trade by 52.3 percent by eliminating import duties, and to double this trade if non-tariff barriers are also reduced.
However, despite the publicity built around this major feat, the Business Tracker has revealed that only a little over 26 percent of firms in the country are aware of the AfCFTA and its projected benefits.
Meanwhile, the deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay has expressed government’s intent in facilitating requisite infrastructure in empowering indigenous businesses to harness the benefit of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
Speaking at a conference in Kumasi on the theme: “Empowering Ghanaian Businesses to harness the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement under the framework of the National Export Development Strategy”, Mr. Ahomka-Lindsay noted that, this is to help these businesses aptly represent the country and strategically position themselves in discourse on the free trade area.
Additionally, he stated that, although there has been a surge in our export metrics, more needs to be done in that department.
“We will empower Ghanaian businesses to harness the benefit of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement under the framework of the National Export Strategy. We want you to know what you need to do to take full advantage for your business in all the fifty-four African countries that are part of AfCFTA. We know we have opportunities, skill sets and various businesses that have the potential, but we need to put infrastructure that allows us to take advantage of that and what the National Export Development Authority is doing.
“Currently we are exporting about 1.4 billion dollars and although we are growing in terms of export from Ghana, to the continent of about 10 percent per year, more needs to be done because the opportunities are huge”.
