Dentaa Amoateng the Chief Executive Officer of GUBA UK believes businesses and entrepreneurs should hold the bull by the horn and make in-roads into sub regional trade.
She is of the belief African governments have not done much for businesses in Africa and shares the opinion with others who believe it’s about time African business stop the over reliance on governments for support.“In any case they are not helping, so I believe it’s about time we form partnerships and see how we can build on win-win scenarios, we can wait on governments forever but to no avail”, the GUBA UK boss added. She was contributing to a panel discussion on fostering intra-regional trade at the just ended invests in Ghana Forum 2015.
Intra-African trade presents opportunities for sustained growth and development in Africa. It has the potential to reduce vulnerability to global shocks, contribute to economic diversification, enhance export competitiveness and create employment.
“You drive along the main Kumasi Highway and you see vast lands available for cultivation, let’s get down there and do things for ourselves, the government and no one is going to do for us.” Just as Ghana’ indigenous fruit processing company Blue Skies hinted of a move to relocate their processing plants from Ghana to Ivory Coast because of lack of raw materials, for production. Fruits such as pineapples, bananas, mangoes are in dire supply and it is necessitating the relocation efforts by the company which is a top supply for most retail outlets in the UK and Europe including renowned brands like Tesco. But Dentaa believes this presents an opportunity to businesses with interest in agriculture to benefit.
Exports by African countries to their peers on the continent has surged by 32% since the 2008 economic downturn, compared to growth of just 5% in exports to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, in 2011, intra-African trade accounted for merely 9% of the continent’s total trade with the world, compared to 25% for Latin America and almost 50% for Asia.
Some of the structural issues impeding intra-African trade include poor road and rail infrastructure, restrictive tariff structures, the unavailability of foreign exchange and the lack of trade-related financial solutions. While African governments are well placed to assist in addressing the structural barriers to trade on the continent, equally so are financial institutions able to take the lead in attending to the problems impacting the availability of financial services.
Author: Paa Swanzy-Essuman || Ghanatalksbusiness.com || p.swanzy@ghanatalksbusiness.com
