Govt holds national confab on implementation of AfCFTA agreement tomorrow

The government will hold a two-day National Conference in Accra from Tuesday, October 20 to 21, 2020 on the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. 

The National Conference is being organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) and the National AfCFTA Coordination Office, in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission (UNECA).

A statement issued in Accra yesterday by the Ministry of Trade and Industry said, the conference would be held under the theme; “Empowering Ghanaian businesses to harness the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement under the framework of the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS)”

It said “the National Conference will bring together relevant stakeholders from the private and public sectors in Ghana to discuss Government of Ghana’s export development interventions aimed at empowering the private sector to harness the benefits of the AfCFTA”.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to open the two-day conference and will use the opportunity to articulate the government’s commitment to the AfCFTA and the empowerment of the private sector to boost Ghana’s trade with Continental Africa, with trading scheduled to start on January 1, 2021.

Participants will include CEOs in the business community, senior policy makers, parliamentarians, academia, representatives of civil society organisations, development partners and the media. 

The first National Conference on AfCFTA was organised by the government in August 2019.