The Sustainability Manager at Miniplast LTD, Dr. Paa Kwesi Eduaful Abaidoo, has called for a comprehensive policy framework to incentivise local businesses and industries to take full advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He said Ghana needs clear, deliberate and sustained government support to help domestic businesses expand their production capacity, increase exports and compete effectively in the African market.
Speaking in an interview on October 21, Dr. Abaidoo argued that the long-term success of the AfCFTA would depend largely on Ghana’s ability to move away from an import-dependent economy towards one driven by local production and exports.
He stressed that the government must establish policies that provide the necessary direction for businesses while creating incentives to encourage industries to produce more goods for export rather than focus primarily on meeting domestic demand.
“The whole thing is about having a long-term framework where we are turning from an import-dependent economy to an export-driven economy. The policy guide and policy pool is very important because if we, as a ministry, for example, decide that we are going to do more export compared to import as a country, what it simply means is that there are some structural incentives which will now pull us along in order to ensure that we are not producing to consume locally or we are not trying to do just the normal exportation but then we are being motivated by a bigger picture or a bigger policy so that we will be able to now drive along.
“When the government policy and intention is clear to reduce importation by a certain volume or percentage, it will simply mean that forces will have to pull together from both the financial side and the policy side and even the AfCFTA Secretariat and all that so that we will be able to move towards the agenda of reducing importation and increasing exportation.”
