The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), has called on businesses to build capacity for the ensuing African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Following calls by the business community for more to be done to empower the private sector to become a hub for economic growth in Africa through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Chief Executive Officer of the Center, Mr. Yofi Grant, pledged the Center’s support to local businesses via assistance to harness the opportunities that come with trading under the AfCFTA.
In light of this, he expressed his outfit’s readiness to create a more advantageous business environment for local businesses to thrive under the AfCFTA by being value driven.
“It’s without doubt that at the high ends of the trade value chain, there is value addition and industrialization. So, we are not going to export our raw materials and resources as we did before. We are going to add value to them and in that sense, we would require some amount of investment to make that happen because investment is not only into the companies. It is also about the factories themselves. Because if you want to be a trade partner, you must be trading some goods and services; you must build the capacity for it”.
Additionally, he noted that, the Center will also initiate structured help to these businesses via incentive and investor support.
“There’s also training as all these form the composite for what is required to make it happen in a very structured way. Looking for investors who are particularly keen on that; but we are now selling a much more aggressive story of actually coming to produce in Africa, and helping our indigenes to also scale up.
“For example, in the textiles industry, we have spoken to quite a number of significant world players to actually come and set up shop in Ghana and then take advantage of that export to the continent. We have also discussed with some of our European partners to actually come establish the factories here. At the GIPC, we are actually increasing capacity for better trade investment facilitation which would then percolate towards the trade infrastructure”.
Mr. Yofi Grant
Meanwhile, the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry has called for the review of lending rate in the country with the commencement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.
President of the Construction Chamber, Emmanuel Cherry, said addressing the challenge is crucial in ensuring Ghanaian businesses remain competitive in AfCFTA.
According to the Construction Chamber, the rate puts its members at a disadvantage among other African countries with access to cheaper credit.
“We are pleading with the government that it should come and have a second look at the financial sector for us, so that the interest can at least be relooked at. The Bank of Ghana should come and see how best they can at least upgrade the policy rate. There is a lot of work that has to be done there. Most of our things are from the manufacturing sector and the sector is also borrowing with high-interest rate from the market and the competitors are coming with the same goods.
“We may abandon them and go for the cheaper ones because we also want to make profit”.
Emmanuel Cherry
