Applications of some local companies to trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement are currently being processed according to Fechin Yao Akoto, Assistant Commissioner at the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
The processing of these applications by local companies, Mr Akoto speaking at the US – Ghana Business Forum themed Leveraging AfCFTA to promote US – Africa Commercial Partnerships, said shows Ghana’s readiness to trade under the AfCFTA.
According to him, the Customs Division has put in place all the needed systems to assess and ascertain if products meet the requisite rules and qualify to trade under the AfCFTA.
Corroborating the assertion on Ghana’s readiness to trade under the AfCFTA was Dr Fareed Arthur, Head of the Ghana AfCFTA Coordination Office who noted that about 200 Ghanaian businesses have been certified and ready to trade under AfCFTA.
The readiness of these businesses follows series of workshops and training organized under the Facilitation programme for companies exporting under AfCFTA project by the Ghana AfCFTA Coordination Office, which forms part of efforts to get local companies to leverage on the opportunities presented by the continental free trade programme.
Already, Ghana has listed 6,000 goods and services with harmonized codes that are qualified to trade under the agreement.
For majority of Ghanaian businesses and their counterparts across the Continent, the major challenge to trading under the AfCFTA is compliance to the Rules of Origin.
According to the AfCFTA Country Business Index Report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, African businesses on the Continent have identified compliance to requirements of the Rules-of-Origin in trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as the most restrictive part of the entire trade pact.
Per the report, the negative views of African businesses with regards to the Rules-of-Origin, is the result of the difficulty of conforming to the rules which are onerous particularly for informal traders and women-owned businesses.
In view of this, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa believes a simplified Rules-of-Origin for trading under the AfCFTA will engender compliance to the Rules-of-Origin among African businesses, alleviate the negative perceptions about the rules and enhance cross-border trade.
According to the World Bank, the AfCFTA would significantly boost African trade, particularly intra-regional trade in manufacturing.
The volume of total exports would increase by almost 29 percent by 2035. Intra-continental exports would increase by over 81 percent, while exports to non-African countries would rise by 19 percent.
Intra-AfCFTA exports to AfCFTA partners, the World Bank predicts, would rise speedily, especially for Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, and Tunisia, with exports doubling or even tripling.
Of the real sectors of the economy, the manufacturing sector is expected to gain the most with 62 per cent increment in production activities followed with modest gains in the services sector and smaller gains in agriculture.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement creates the World’s largest free trade area in the world measured by the number of countries participating.
The pact connects 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) valued at US$3.4 trillion.
It has the potential to lift over 100 million people out of moderate and extreme poverty.