The Greater Accra Regional Shipper Committee has organized its third quarter meeting of the year at the Ghana Shippers’ House on Wednesday, 18th September, 2019. The meeting was to educate shippers and other stakeholders in the shipping and logistics industry on the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
A resource person from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Stephen Mickson Opoku said the AfCFTA is a duty-free and quota-free single market that enables all African countries to trade effectively with each other.
He said through intra-Africa trade, there will be a better coordination of trade within the African continent which will boost its economic diversification and industrialization.
He highlighted some overlapping revelations and protocols as reasons for African states’ inability to trade amongst themselves. He, however, noted that the AfCFTA has been carefully designed to allow key players on the continent to trade in a free and continuous manner.
Mr Opoku added that the AfCFTA will significantly improve the terms of trade for African countries, enhance benefits to consumers in Africa through lower prices of goods imported within the continent and also provide employment opportunities, particularly for the youth.
A resource person from the Ghana Energy Commission, Mr Hubert Nsoh Zan also educated the shippers on energy regulations and policies that have been enforced by the Commission, particularly the ban on importation of used refrigerators, air-conditioners and other electronic appliances.
Representatives from the Vegetable Exporters and Producers Association of Ghana (VEPAG), UT Logistics, Loyalty Insurance, Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), Volta River Authority (VRA), Noble Shipping among others participated in the meeting.
The Greater Accra Regional Shipper Committee is one of the ten Regional Shipper Committees established by the Ghana Shippers’ Authority across the country to bring together shippers, shipping service providers, state agencies involved in trade facilitation and other stakeholders in the shipping and logistics industry to discuss pertinent issues affecting the industry and find solutions to them.
