Ports in West and Central Africa are in the position to boost the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, a Ghanaian official has said.
Michael Luguje, Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) stated this during the 43rd annual Council Meeting and 18th Round Table of Director-Generals and Managing Directors of the Ports Management of West and Central Africa.
Luguie, who chaired a plenary session of the meeting said the ports in the region have enough infrastructure to aid marine trade, averring that the ports have been positioned to take advantage of the agreement.
Addressing the session which discussed how AfCFTA has fared in the first three years, the GPHA Director-General was optimistic about the readiness of the ports to aid exports on the continent, indicating that the ports have developed some appreciable level of expertise in the handling of exports.
“To a large extent, the ports have the facilities to handle cargo and ships, and our capacities have been tested so far as imports are concerned,” said Lugujie, who doubles as the Vice President of the International Ports and Harbours Association.
He said increasing interest in AfCFTA would help generate cargo within the continent that would move from Point A to B and help focus more on exports instead of imports.
On his part, Olusegun Awolowo, Executive Secretary of the National Action Committee on AfCFTA in Nigeria, noted that African free trade area has become the biggest trading block in the world and Africa must give it her all.
“Customs in Africa must realize that having a market of 1.2 billion people and 3 trillion dollars, revenues will fall short when we start full implementation of AfCFTA, because Africans will not be paying duties again, that’s why the trade facilitation process is very important,” Awolowo stated.