President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi, has disclosed that it has become imperative for local businesses to be well incentivized in order to benefit from AfCFTA.

According to him, the pandemic has brought to the fore the need to do more in order to enable businesses trade on AfCFTA.

Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Industrial Summit and Exhibition 2021, Mr Gyamfi noted that the implementation of essential policies should also be of concern.

He further noted that the theme for this year’s summit which is ‘Repositioning Ghanaian industries to improve our leverage in working under the AfCFTA’, is a “great” idea in achieving the desired results from the event.

“This theme sets the tone for a good dialogue and policy prescriptions that should propel our way forward… Affordable electricity, Ghana’s tariff negotiations and liberalization strategies within the AfCFTA and the incentives for industries in Ghana, our major concern. Because without these incentives, Ghanaian companies cannot become competitive.

“To do well under the AfCFTA, AGI understands the importance of the cost of doing business. Leveraging AfCFTA becomes more difficult if our local production and competitiveness is not considered”.
Yaw Adu Gyamfi

He further expressed optimism over Ghana’s signing on a number of trade agreements such as the interim economic partnership agreement under the UK trade agreement.

“It is very apparent that a lot more needs to be required to enable businesses trade under the Africa continental free trade considering the turbulences that businesses went through last year.

“However, let us not lose spirit of the fact that these agreements also come with a duty free quota for all the provisions of imports that will be coming into our country. Be mindful that we also don’t have much to export into their countries”.
Yaw Adu Gyamfi

High cost of lending from banks

On his part, Senior Adviser to the President, Yaw Osafo Marfo intimated that government is injecting policies and reforms to facilitate the competitiveness of local industries.

Mr Marfo noted that the establishment of the new Development Bank and other interventions will cushion and capitalize local industries.

Additionally, he advised the banking sector to reverse their decision in not granting long term credits to businesses who request for them.

“Government recognizes the challenges of the medium to long term capital to our economy. The banks, through no fault of theirs have also preferred to lend short and maximum medium; short term lending is the icing on the cake for our banks. As a result of that, retail trade has really flourished in our system because the banks will normally prefer to lend short. So, the traders [don’t have] much difficulty accessing bank credits, but industries have.

“If we want to create employment, we must reverse it. Banks should feel more comfortable lending medium and long than lending short. It cannot be that banks are more interested in overdrafts than term loans”.

“AGI, you have a lot of work to do in making the Ghana beyond aid concept work and work effectively. There are certain areas we should not take for granted… if we are to move forward”.
Yaw Osafo Marfo