AfCFTA: Local businesses must expand or risk collapse – AGI

The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) says with the commencement of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA), Ghanaian businesses risk losing their market if they do not expand.

The association is therefore calling on indigenous businesses to put plans in place to make them very competitive.

According to the CEO of AGI, Seth Twum Akwaboah, although the agreement presents some opportunities, local businesses risk collapse with the influx of products from other African countries.

It is giving us more opportunity in a wider market and there is a risk. The risk is that if we do not take advantage of it and expand, our market will even be taken away. While you are targeting other markets, others are also targeting your market, and therefore you strategize well and produce at the best competitive price, and then you can export to those markets.”

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As you are getting bigger market you can expand and as you are expanding you are becoming bigger, and then you move from one level to another and that is when you become large if you grow”, he added.

The AfCFTA which is headquartered in Accra commenced on the 1st of January this year and comprises 52 African nations.

The agreement seeks to remove trade barriers between member countries.

Experts have argued that the combined GDP of $3.4 trillion the AfCFTA creates stands to significantly improve intra-African trade.