National AfCFTA Coordinating Office
The National AfCFTA Coordinating Office has expressed its preparedness to reach out directly to small-scale and medium enterprises (SMEs) and potential exporters through consistent engagements and stakeholder deliberations.
This is to enhance the capacity of Ghanaian women traders in the single continental market, and hand-hold local export businesses to equip them with the requisite information and preparations which will help them to competitively access the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Its Head of Strategic Communications, Catherine Afeku, indicated the importance for the message to reach SMEs regarding how they can get started for the market.
“That’s by taking communication right down to them on the ground through stakeholder engagements with young entrepreneurs and women especially – who make up the bulk of the SMEs sector,” she said in an interview with Single African Market.
Steps to registration
Mrs Afeku further indicated that the office had already developed a three-stepped process for businesses seeking to register for the AfCFTA that is less intimidating and simplified.
“We want to create an enabling environment for young entrepreneurs who are the future of this continent. As the host nation, we have to lead our people through the AfCFTA journey; and we have to be seen taking due advantage of its opportunities,” she added.
In the area of trade finance, Mrs Afeku urged commercial banks to have dedicated desks that will fast-track AfCFTA-based transactions aligned to the Pan-African Payments and Settlement Systems (PAPSS).
“We feel the enthusiasm about the PAPSS. What we are doing now is to ensure that there are focal persons in our banks to attend to AfCFTA issues. A trader shouldn’t walk into the bank and seem lost; there can be a desk like they have for retail banking and private banking,” the Head of Communication said.
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