AfCFTA key to promoting intra-Africa
We are determined to produce our vaccines, Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said Africa needs to put in more efforts to greatly increase intra-African trade.
This, he said, is essential in creating wealth and prosperity on the continent.
He noted that the intra-European trade was pegged at 72 percent of the combined GDP of Europe while that of Africa was merely 16 percent.
“These two statistics tell us everything about the relative economic development of Africa and Europe”, he said.
The president who disclosed this at the Ghana-South Africa Business Forum in Accra added that to promote inter-African, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement must be implemented successfully.
“As God will have it at this critical moment of Africa’s history, the AfCFTA’s Secretariat is located here in Ghana, and the first Secretary-General of the AfCFTA is a South African, who had shown a great deal of attitude and enthusiasm for the work,” he stated.
He further stated that the role of the private sector was very critical for the implementation of AfCFTA and, therefore urged them to take on the responsibility of moving the process of regional integration and regional trade forward.
The president assured the business community especially South African, businesses that his government would continue to create a conducive investment environment for them.
President Akufo-Addo revealed that Ghana and South Africa had agreed to set up a Business Advisory Council to promote investment among the two countries.
Also, President Akufo-Addo said the countries must work together to ensure that the continent's capabilities in vaccines production was enhanced.
“We cannot enter the next round of the pandemic and are dependent again on people who hoard vaccines when the world needs them. We are determined this time around, to develop our capacity to produce vaccines,” President Akufo-Addo said.
On his part, President Cyril Ramaposa commented the business community and the government of Ghana for putting in measures to ensure that a lot of business did not collapse during this COVID-19 era
According to him the critical condition for the recovery of the economies of African countries was the successful rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and the continued adherence to the measures and protocols put in place to keep citizens safe and alive.
He lamented that while more than 220 million vaccine doses had been administered worldwide only 6.7 percent of the African population was fully vaccinated.
President of Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo