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The Chairperson of the Gender Sub-Committee on Trade (GSCT) under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), Ms Naah Ayitteh Densua, has assured Cross Border Women Traders (CBWT) in the country that efforts are being made to address the challenges confronting them in carrying out their business activities across the borders of the country.
Ms Densua said issues such as security problems at the borders, lack of easy access to financial support, lack of infrastructure, including markets and health facilities at the borders remained as some of the problems facing CBWT in the country.
Speaking at a maiden annual general meeting of Cross Border Women Traders Association of Ghana (CBWTAG) under the theme: ‘Unleashing the Power of Cross Border Women Traders: Innovation, Security, Compliance, Resilience and Sustainability,’ at Aflao in the Volta Region, Ms Densua disclosed that women contributed a lot to the economic growth of the country, therefore must be supported to perform their duties effectively.
She said CBWTAG had complained about the personnel of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) of harassment in carrying out their lawful duties, saying it was important for security agencies such as the Customs Division of GRA and the GIS to regularly educate CBWT on matters regarding security at the various borders.
Ms Densua appealed to security agencies at the borders to introduce a modern communication methods in pictorial form, and placed at vantage areas at the borders which would easily be understood by the women traders.
According to her, majority of CBWT could not read and pictorial form of communication would prevent the security personnel from communicating directly to individual women traders.
She announced that as part of efforts to promote the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), a digitalised payment system would soon be introduced to help traders, particularly CBWT to pay for their goods in any country they found themselves within the sub-region without difficulties.
The Principal Operations Officer of the Ghana Shippers Council (GSC), Mrs Adelaide Nyamekye-Addo, commended Trade Mark Africa, an international non-governmental organization, for supporting CBWTAG to organise the first general meeting.
Mrs Nyamekye-Addo lauded CBWTAG for the formation of the Association, which would help the traders to be easily identified.
The National President of CBWTAG, Ms Lucky Rose Honodzi, stated that women played crucial roles in the development of the country, as they tried to improve on the living standard of their families, hence needed to be supported.
Additionally, she noted that it was important for traders, particularly women traders to adhere to security measures at the various borders because security personnel were there in their interest.
The members of the CBWTAG during the meeting said one of the problems confronting them was extortion of money from them by the security agencies as they plied their trade across the borders, and appealed to the government to help them bring extortion at the borders to an end in order to give meaning to ACFTA.
