On December 5, 2022, at the Third Annual Investment Week held in Accra, Ghana, Trade and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen praised the Ghana Free Zones Authority (GFZA) for its historic accomplishments.
He claims that the Authority has supported several investment opportunities and the establishment of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area over the course of the past year (AFCFTA).
In his remarks at the occasion, Alan Kyerematen urged investors to fully utilize the AfCFTA.
to enhance exports of goods made locally and to create additional jobs.
The Trade and Industry Minister argued in favor of AfCFTA by pointing out how simple it is for member countries to exchange products and services under the AfCTA protocol.
“The theme for the Investment Week celebration calls for championing export-led industrial growth; in the context of AfCFTA and World Trade. The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) provides an opportunity for Ghana to increase its exports to other African countries through the creation of a single market, thus boosting intra-African trade. The AfCFTA is tasked to implement protocols to eliminate trade barriers and cooperate with member states on investment and competition policies, intellectual property rights, settlement of disputes and other trade-liberating strategies”, Alan Kyerematen told investors.
He added, “There is therefore the need to promote exports as a nation now more than ever before. As a country, we have enough local capacity couple with abundant resource endowment to produce our basic needs, as well as have enough to export for foreign exchange.
“Government agencies such as the Ghana Free Zones Authority will have to provide support to the private sector to among others, expand their productive capacity across all relevant value chains within the economy. This will not only promote exports, but greatly encourage value addition for import substitution.”
The minister continued, “It is expected that through increased focus on the concept of Free Zones and Special Economic Zones, job creation will become one of the major benefits that the private sector will offer.
“As we are all aware, enterprises that operate under the Free Zones and Special Economic Zones have the capacity to generate significant employment opportunities,” he concluded.
Since its establishment, the Free Zones Authority has created avenues for multiple goods and services to be exchanged between member counties as part of Africa’s industrialization and exportation project.