The training formed part of efforts to empower businesses to tap into the opportunities offered by the AfCFTA.

Organised by the National AfCFTA Coordination Office (NCO) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the participants were taking through modules such as access to capital, business ethics, transparency and financial analysis.

MSMEs

MSMEs formed the backbone of Ghana’s economy, representing more than 90 per cent of private businesses and employing about 72 per cent of women and youth in the private informal sector and 68 per cent in the private formal sector.

According to the UNDP, more than 70 per cent of cross-border traders were women and youth most of whom were significantly and negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This was revealed by a COVID-19 Business Tracker survey, conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service supported by the UNDP and the World Bank to ascertain the impact of the pandemic on their operations.

The AfCFTA, therefore, provides an opportunity for MSMEs to create a single, continent-wide market and enhance competitiveness at the enterprise level.

Regional markets

In his remarks, the Northern Regional Trade and Industrial Officer, Hamidu Hamza Saana, said AfCFTA presented enormous opportunities for SMEs to connect to the regional markets and deepen their integration into the African single market which allowed exporters to trade from far and wide.

He noted that the government, through the Ministry of Trade and Industry was instituting policy reform measures to encourage the private sector to invest in industrial ventures, create more jobs and promote intervention in support of innovation and entrepreneurship.

"To this end, the Ministry of Trade and Industry is implementing a Ten-Point Plan (TPP) to shore up investment in key strategic and productive sectors. A key component of the TPP is the Business Regulatory Reform Programme designed to improve the business environment and make Ghana one of the best countries to do business in Africa," he said.

Sustained economy

A Programme Officer at NCO, Divine Kutortse, said "Competitive youth-led firms have the potential to create more and better jobs, and foster production and trade of diversified goods and services across the continent, which, on the one hand, promotes access to a wide range of goods and services and increased income thus ultimately improving the lives of the African people".