Financial institutions in the country must collaborate and take advantage of the opportunities offered by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) initiative to boost their businesses, Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, has said.
To this end, he entreated financial institutions to strengthen their risk management systems and scale-up capacity in trade finance to support the private sector.
“Additionally, banks and non-bank financial institutions are encouraged to increase investments in digitisation platforms as well as cyber-security systems to facilitate safe and secure trade transactions through AfCFTA,” he said during the opening of the Africa Trade roadshow.
It was organised by the Afreximbank, Oakwood Green Africa, and the AfCFTA Secretariat on the theme “Supporting the Africa Trade Agenda- Ensuring the Last Mile.”
Financial institutions taking advantage of AfCFTA, Dr Addison said, would also help boost the country’s trade.
Dr Addison indicated that Ghana’s financial sector could play a pivotal role in leveraging AfCFTA to boost the country’s socio-economic development.
That, he said, could be achieved through investments in infrastructure and financial technology to support regional trade transactions.
Dr Addison observed that the high dependence on trade in primary goods, high product and market concentration of exports, and weak regional production networks were among the main challenges of trade on the African continent.
The trade constraints in Africa, he said were partly linked to small, fractured, and partially-isolated markets.
“The effective implementation of AfCFTA will therefore be a giant step forward and the Agreement demonstrates Africa’s readiness to integrate into the global trade agenda,” Dr Addison stressed, adding that “To play a relevant role in this space, the continent must strategically position itself to take advantage of the opportunities AfCFTA presents.”
The Governor said the smooth implementation of AfCFTA would require commitment from all countries and all stakeholders.
He said AfCFTA was one of the flagship projects of the African Union’s “Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want”, with the aim to promote trade among 55 African countries, with a market size of about 1.2 billion people and projected S$450 billion income boost for the continent by 2035.
“The main objective of AfCFTA is to create a single market for goods and services and promote the free movement of business persons and investments in Africa and seek to expand intra-African trade through better harmonisation and coordination of trade liberalisation and facilitation regimes,” Dr Addison said.
On the Africa Trade Show, the Governor said the programme was coming at an opportune time to help facilitate and create the enabling environment for trade for all stakeholders in the trade industry in Ghana.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
