Ghana has submitted itself to a year-long peer review on corporate governance to streamline the activities of the Government and businesses to serve as catalysts for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
A financial analyst, Mr. Laud Mansfield Baddoo has said The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is designed to guide policymakers into implementing policies that can maximize the potential gains of the program while decreasing risk.
Laud Mansfield Baddoo, who doubles as an eminent Person at NAPRM Governing Council, said the review would help equip Ghanaian firms to improve their operations and access investments both locally and foreign to harness the opportunities at AfCFTA.
He added that effective corporate governance was a vital tool to enable the private sector to develop and grow, and urged all organizations. irrespective of their size and operations to adhere to accepted standards.
According to him, the program presents over 30 million Africans with the opportunity to be raised out of poverty. He said with effective corporate governance; will help enhance stakeholders’ confidence in participation. Harmonizing businesses regardless of their location on the African continent as the market is worth Trillions of cedis so being a part of it will actually boost the Ghanaian economy.
Meanwhile, Madam Winnifred Akoto-Sampong. Acting Executive Secretary of National African NAPRM-GC, said the report had shown that Ghanaian private sector businesses were not taking advantage of trading opportunities of AfCFTA.
`We have a $1.3 billion market. so we want to understand and address the issues so we can sustain ourselves as a continent without running to others,” Mad Akoto-Sampong, added.
Gifty Afenyi Dadzie, who represented the Chairman of the Governing Council, NAPRM-GC. said the review was strategic and unique because it was tied to AfCFTA implementation.
She said: ‘It is the first of its kind and would result in Ghana setting another enviable record of being the first to be peer-reviewed under AfCFTA. after setting a similar record as the first nation to be peer-reviewed on all four APRM pillars in 2006.”
She added that: Our focus, therefore, is on how Ghana should accelerate its preparedness to take full advantage of AfCFTA for sustainable economic growth and development.
On her part, a representative of the chairman of the Governing Council of the National African Peer Review Mechanism (NAPRM), Hon. Mrs. Gifty Afenyi Dadzie revealed the government has initiated moves to provide strategic direction and coordinate the effective implementation as it will lead to sustainable development.
This will include boosting Intra-African trade and Africa’s prosperity within the context of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and working with Governments in achieving its full implementation. And therefore, urging the private sector to take full advantage of this rare opportunity.
She said, the Private sector will not only be the driving force of (AfCFTA), but will also be the primary beneficiary of the single market when Africa achieves the desired levels of trade between Africans as a people, adding that the advancement of intra-continental trade would mean private businesses can expand their markets, and venture into new territories which were previously inaccessible to them.
Story by:Kwaku Stephen
