Ghana's President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says the ratification of the Continental Free Trade Area agreement by the Ghanaian Parliament, will mean that the era of low volumes of intra-continental trade that have defined the activities of the African economies will come to an end. 

“Up till now, trade between African regions has remained low compared to other parts of the world. In 2000, intra-regional trade accounted for 10% of Africa’s total trade, and increased marginally to 11% in 2015. Trading amongst members of the European Union, for example, amounted to 70% in 2015,” the President said. 

He noted that with Africa’s population set to increase from 1.2 billion to 2 billion in 20 years time, an increase in intra-regional trade in Africa is the surest way to develop fruitful relations between African countries. 

President Akufo-Addo was speaking at the 2018 Oxford Africa Conference, at the University of Oxford, when he delivered the keynote address on Friday, May 11, 2018.

This market, he explained, will present immense opportunities to bring wealth and prosperity to the African people, with hard work, ingenuity, innovation and enterprise. 

“It will mean a rapid increase in exchanges of our agricultural, financial, industrial, scientific and technological products, which would enhance dramatically our attainment of prosperity, and the prospects of employment for the broad masses of Africans, particularly our youth. Our economies would then be shaped not by the production and export of raw materials, but by the things we make,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo who is on a week-long vacation in the UK, is expected  to return to Ghana on Wednesday, May 16, 2018.

  

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