Ghana launched its African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) hub Monday to increase local participation in the continent-wide free trade and facilitate businesses.
It would also enhance marketplace transactions to accelerate the implementation of AfCFTA and maximise the corresponding benefits.
The hub also seeks to digitise collaboration among key national and regional actors and provides an AfCFTA Number, a unique code for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) startups and other economic actors that would engage in trading under the AfCFTA.
The countries chosen to start trading on the hub include Ghana, Tunisia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Mauritius, Kenya, Egypt, and Cameroon
At a forum to launch it yesterday in Accra, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, said, with the AfCFTA Number, Ghanaian enterprises would be able to obtain a secure navigational tool as well as a trusted profile to speed connections across the continent for business.
“The AfCFTA hub is the principal tool for aligning Ghana’s own wide-ranging digitalization policy with the various opportunities presented by AfCFTA,” said Minister for Communication and Digitalization Ursula Owusu-Ekuful during the launching ceremony.
The hub will serve as a one-stop shop for all registration and certification processes for businesses and individuals who want to take advantage of the free trade initiative, said the official, adding that it will connect them with other major private sector platforms in e-commerce, modern retail, and logistics services.
The minister told reporters that the AfCFTA hub rolled out an online application to link systems built locally by all actors to one network.
“It is easier for us to track your transactions online and across the continent. We want to make it easy to assist our small and medium enterprises in their work and facilitate the work of our courier services and other logistics companies,” she said.
