President Nana Akufo-Addo has urged exporters to take advantage of the transformative infrastructural and policy changes his government has undertaken over the past few years to improve the country’s balance of trade.
Speaking at the “31st and 32nd President’s National Awards for Export Achievement 2023,” the president mentioned “unprecedented” infrastructural developments executed under his administration, including those in the ports, as providing a good platform to boost the operations of exporters in the country.
“New roads, airways, and railway transportation systems, as well as the expansion of our ports, are all geared towards helping you conduct your businesses smoothly.”
“In addition to these developments, we have introduced several systems to facilitate export and import processes,” the President said.
He also urged exporters to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), noting that “the AfCFTA is a real game changer, and once fully realised, we can potentially increase, on an annual basis, according to the Economic Commission for West Africa, intra-African trade by some $35 billion and reduce external imports by some $10 billion.”
According to him, this would result in more opportunities for the growth of small businesses, lifting 30 million people out of extreme poverty.
The President furthered that a successful AfCFTA would mean Africa would move away from an excessive dependence on extractive resources and diversify its industrial exports.
The President praised exporters for their significant contribution to the growth of the economy in spite of their numerous challenges, including contributing to Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves, creating employment, and boosting the balance of payments.
“Despite the stiff global competition and the present global challenges you are confronted with, I congratulate all of you for contributing some $3.53% billion in 2022, representing an increase of 6% over the 2021 earnings amount of $3.33 billion in foreign exchange to our national accounts,” President Akufo-Addo said.
“We acknowledge the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, whose consequences have been worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on businesses globally. I dare say that a lot of Ghanaian businesses have been severely hit,” he added.
President Akufo-Addo asserted that his administration has been working hard for over three years to reverse this negative trend, stating that they have “turned the corner” based on macroeconomic indices including the inflation rate, the stability of the Ghana Cedi, and the economic growth rate, “all now pointing in the right direction.”
Dubbed “Recognising Excellence: Driving Sustainable Exports to Accelerate Ghana’s Prosperity,” the event was jointly organised by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) and the Ghana Free Zones Authority (GFZA).
It aimed at recognising the achievements of exporters in several product and service categories for the years 2021 and 2022.
B 5 Plus Limited, an iron and steel manufacturing and trading company, won the ultimate award, which is Exporter of the Year for both 2021 and 2022.
