Wednesday, October 24, 2018. The American Chamber of Commerce, Ghana led by the Executive Secretary, Mr. Simon Madjie joined U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for their Trade Africa Learning Event held in Accra, Ghana.
The event was under the theme, ‘Enhancing Ghana’s Trade Competitiveness: Lessons from the Trade Africa Partnership.’ The Trade Africa Learning event brought together Government of Ghana officials and other partners to share some achievements attained over the years and the opportunities available for Ghana to boost exports of Ghanaian products, and diversify its export base to high-value markets.
Since 2016, the “Trade Africa” initiative has provided $10 million to support the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement, improve phytosanitary standards, help Ghana overcome technical barriers to trade, and support policies that promote regional trade and investment.
AmCham Ghana has been a beneficiary of the USAID led initiative. The Chamber was assisted to improve on its communication and to effectively strengthen our advocacy capacity through regular engagement with top Government officials, policy makers and other stakeholders.
The Chamber’s Executive Secretary in his remarks acknowledged the assistance provided by USAID in organizing events during the period of engagement. He stated that notable among them was the engagement with Her Ladyship, Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo. An event which brought together the custodians of the country’s laws and the business community under one roof to dialogue and find mutual grounds where law will aid business and vise versa.
The Trade Africa initiative has achieved several successes during its two year period. These include the support provided to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture vegetable export task force to improve quality standards in order to restore access by Ghanaian vegetable exporters to the European Union. This reduced the number of shipments intercepted by EU authorities drastically.
The figures dropped from 330 interceptions in 2014 to four (4) in 2017.
The event was attended by the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah, Commissioner for the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Mr. Isaac Crentsil, the USAID/Ghana Acting Mission Director, Steven E. Hendrix and other key personalities.
USAID/Ghana Acting Mission Director, Steven E. Hendrix in his remarks said, “The U.S. government is proud to support the government through increased exports of Ghanaian goods and businesses to the world markets.”
