Alhaji Yakubu Yussif, a Member of the National Coordination Office of Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has called on Ghanaian business owners and exporters to take advantage of AfCFTA to expand their production base and add value to their products.

According to the Member of the National Coordination Office of AfCFTA, the implementation of AfCFTA with its headquarters situated in Accra offers huge opportunities for Ghanaians to increase supply to strategically position themselves to benefit substantially.

“AfCFTA is a very big single market made up of 54 African countries for now and we are looking at the strength of 1.2 billion people. It is an opportunity to access an easy market but most of our exporters are not aware and need to be sensitized.”
Alhaji Yussif

Alhaji Yussif noted that the AfCFTA National Policy Framework aimed to remove trade barriers that have to do with tariffs and other border bottlenecks to facilitate, speed up processes, and provide the needed infrastructure to make trading easy and convenient.

The National Export Development Strategy

Alhaji Yussif explained that the National Export Development Strategy is a 10-year policy document, designed by GEPA and other relevant institutions and is meant to empower businesses in Ghana especially those in the Non-Traditional Exports (NTES) sector to diversify production and contribute to the country’s industrialization agenda. It seeks to build the capacities of exporters and businesses to increase production and non-traditional exports to significantly contribute to achieving the revenue target of at least US$25.3 billion by 2029.

Alhaji Yussit made this known at Walewale in the West Mamprusi Municipality of the North East Region, as part of the nationwide district-level sensitization programme on the implementation of the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS) and AfCFTA. It was organized by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) on the theme “Driving Exports Through the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS)” and brought together actors in the non-traditional export value chain from the West Mamprusi and East Mamprusi Municipalities and Mamprugu-Moagduri District.

Mr. Seidu Saaka Bakari, the Zonal Director, Tamale Zonal Office, GEPA, indicated that the NEDS is aimed at expanding the production base, improve the business environment through regulatory documentation and building the human capacity to drive development through export.

Enough Foreign Exchange Earnings in the Country

The Zonal Director stated that taking advantage of AfCFTA would ensure that there are enough foreign exchange earnings in the country to stabilize the economic challenges through the strengthening of the local currency and boost the manufacturing and export sectors. He noted that shea butter, rice and watermelon were some of the major non-traditional export products in the area and called on the Assemblies to identify at least one competitive exportable product and invest in it to increase production and take advantage of the AfCFTA.

Mr. Abdul Rashid Jabir, the Human Resource Manager of West Mamprusi Municipal Assembly, on his part, indicated that there are various exportable products that the Assembly was considering for investment. He explained that NEDS would contribute to boosting the agriculture value chain in the area for job creation and poverty reduction.

Ms. Sabratu Mahama, Secretary, Nasia Women Cooperative, noted that the sensitization on NEDS was an opportunity for them to be enlightened and increase production and add value to their produce to secure market opportunities. She noted that most of the women in the area are into rice, shea butter, sesame, and groundnut processing and called on the government and other stakeholders to help them with agro-processing equipment to help process their produce for the national and international markets.