For trade within the African continent to thrive, certain obstacles such as acquisition of visa to some African countries must be addressed, President of the Global-Africa Trade Advisory Chamber (GATAC), Dominic Oduro-Antwi, has said.
According to him, the establishment of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a good one, but few things have to be looked at to ensure the success of trade among Africans, which he says will help a smooth business transaction.
“We have the African Continental Free Trade Area; it is beautiful but there are certain things that we still need to do. Within Africa, not talking about ECOWAS alone, if we are having issues just among ourselves and we are paying for visa fees, then how do we go about doing business in a very smooth way?” he asked.
Mr. Oduro-Antwi made this comment during the Global Africa Business Dialogue, organised by Global-Africa Trade Advisory Chamber (GATAC) and Ghana-India Trade Advisory Chamber (GITAC).
For him, business owners should always make sure there is a better collaboration between their businesses and other companies within other African countries.
“In trade, you should have collaborators, maybe from other African countries and it is fine. But what I am trying to say is that we should try as much as possible to collaborate. We should not just be talking, we should act and the time is now,” he emphasised.
He indicated that one of the objectives of GATAC organising such dialogue is to be able to bring to bear some of the challenges that traders encounter during their trading in order to be properly addressed.
Mr. Oduro-Antwi strongly believes that it is time for the country to develop its own trade market, saying: “Develop on your own as a country. We live in certain times that we cannot continue to depend on others, especially the western world.
Why are we not trading among Africans? Why are we not doing it among ourselves? Why do we always have to rely on somebody else? The time is now.”
On his part, Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, called on business owners to take advantage of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to explore the African market which presents a lot of opportunities for trade to boost in Africa, and that is a blessing to the continent.
About GATAC
The ‘Global-Africa Trade and Advisory Chamber (GATAC) promotes trade between Ghana-Africa and the global community, providing advisory and training services on trade, investment, and access to capital or funding services for and between local and foreign businesses.
GATAC is a non-profit organisation that seeks to promote trade, cultural understanding, exchange of new ideas, enhanced communication, improved services, investments, fund-raising and interactions between Ghana and the rest of the world.
