The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway has called on the diaspora community to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area, by harnessing the trade and investment engagements within the country.

According to her, this will put them in an advantageous position in the continental market space which has been afforded by AfCFTA.

“The coming into force of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement with trading set to commence on the 1^st of January 2021 is another opportunity for the diaspora to step up their trade and investment engagements in the country.

“This will enable the diaspora to take advantage of the continental market size of 1.2 billion and the corresponding gross domestic product of almost $3 trillion created by the AfCFTA”.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Creating connection, building Ghana together’, the Foreign Affairs Minister also harped on the mandates of public institutions which are tasked with the responsibility of “creating the enabling environment for the involvement of the Ghanaian diaspora in national development”.

She noted that, “there’s never been a time in the history of this country where we’ve seen so much interest and enthusiasm on the part of the diaspora who are willing to contribute their skills, technical know-how and capital in support of government’s transformation agenda”.

She said, the estimated number of Ghanaians living abroad can be tapped into to support sustainable development in Ghana and a vision of a Ghana beyond Aid.

“According to the Bank of Ghana, remittances from Ghanaian diaspora through formal channels have averaged $2 billion per year in recent times. These figures demonstrate the potential of the diaspora as a source of foreign direct investment which needs to be harnessed”.

Shirley Ayorkor Botchway also expressed her excitement on how the diaspora has “responded positively to the invitation extended to engage in this knowledge sharing and to dialogue on how we can further improve on the business and investment climate in Ghana”.

Feedback garnered from diaspora engagement, she believes, will contribute in shaping government policies particularly the objective of the diaspora engagement policy which seeks to harness the human and material resources of the diaspora for the socioeconomic transformation of our country.

“My ministry has been working in collaboration with the diaspora affairs office of the president and other stakeholders including the Ghana Investment Promotion Center to finalize the policy which will soon be submitted to cabinet for approval”.

Highlighting on the four strategic objectives of the policy, she posited that, it will promote capacity building and enhance diaspora homeland relationship for the mutual benefit of both parties.

Secondly, it will “provide the legal instrument and programs that extends some rights and privileges that Ghanaians in Ghana enjoy to their counterparts in the diaspora”.

“Three, strengthen systems for developing the Ghanaian diaspora in mobilizing resources for sustainable national development and four, facilitate the production and dissemination of accurate and relevant data on the Ghanaian diaspora in a timely manner to strengthen the homeland’s further sustainable engagement with the diaspora”.

The policy when adopted, will provide for the leveraging of investment benefit and privileges through strategies that promote foreign direct to Ghana from the diaspora.

“It will further enable us to mainstream diaspora investment, skills and knowledge transfer into development planning in addition to the promotion of made in Ghana abroad through expos and fairs”.

She similarly welcomed the establishment of the diaspora investment desk at the GIPC, which she reckons to be a “brilliant addition to the existing institutional setup for engaging the diaspora”.