Collaboration between AfCFTA members will be problematic – Prof Lord Mensah

A Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Professor Lord Mensah has disclosed that it takes a conscious collaborative effort between government and businesses to establish African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Ghana.

“Negotiating with other African countries is going to be a problem,” he told Don Kwabena Prah on the Happy Development Dialogue.

“Every government has its budget and knows how to operate their fiscal space to meet their target income for the year,” he said.

He added government officials in Ghana make a lot of revenue for the country from tariffs inflow and import duties. “How then does a government say they would sacrifice their tariffs and import duties by accepting goods into the country as a result of this free trade area?”

However, revenue collection is a challenge in this country as officials may not find these traders once they set up in the country. “This is a major barrier if you may ask me,” he decried.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a free trade area founded in 2018, with trade commencing as of 1 January 2021. It was created by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement among 54 of the 55 African Union nations.

The free-trade area is the largest in the world in terms of the number of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organization. Accra, Ghana serves as the Secretariat of AfCFTA and was commissioned and handed over to the AU by the President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo on August 17, 2020, in Accra.