Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Ghana Industries, Seth Twum Akwaboah, has admonished local industries and start-up businesses to re-position themselves in order to cash in on the opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).
Established on May 30th 2019, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement seeks to among many things, create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments and expand intra-African trade through better harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Association of Ghana Industries 16th Western and Central Regional Annual General Meeting held under the theme ”Positioning Ghanaian Industries for Global Competitiveness”, Mr. Twum Akwaboah talked up opportunities the Continental Free Trade Agreement presented to local industries.
”There are enormous opportunities from the Continental Agreement Free Trade.. we have a bigger market access now, we talking about more than 1 billion population. So if you are able to produce in large volumes you can actually satisfy this market” he said.
Albeit, Mr Akwaboah disclosed that the trade agreement present another threat to local businesses, especially those that fail to expand and exploit the opportunities that it presents.
“On the other hand there’s a threat. If you don’t develop a good strategy and develop your capacity, others will flood your market with their goods and even the local industries that are already here will not be able to survive” Mr Akwaboah explained.
He therefore called on industries and businesses to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Continental Free Trade Agreement.
”So its imperative that we build our capacity, expand our production base with funding, technology, expertise and identify the products that we have competitive advantage in producing to the African market” he concluded.
