info@businessghana.com
As part of measures to address food insecurity in the ECOWAS sub-region, the West Africa Food Systems Resilience Programme (FSRP) has initiated a programme to enhance trade among countries in the sub-region.
The Project Coordinator of FSRP in Ghana, Michael Osei Owusu Agyeman, who was speaking at the opening session of a national validation of ECOWAS Agricultural Trade and Market Scorecard (EATMS) in Accra, said the programme was anchored on “sustainability, ownership and public-private partnership”.
He said the World Bank funded programme had three operational components - focus on application of technology in agriculture, strengthening food system and promoting trade and commerce among countries in West Africa.
The project coordinator underscored the importance of trade and commerce in the food system, particularly in the context of regional trade between Ghana and its neighbours.
He said agricultural trade was volatile and relatively low in the ECOWAS region, as compared to other regional economic organisations (RECs) in Africa.
Mr Agyeman said intra-regional trade of food crops accounted for about 12 per cent of total production within ECOWAS member states, adding that the full implementation of the EATMS was expected to increase trade in the sub-region from 10 per cent to 40 per cent by 2030.
The Representative of the World Bank (WB) on the FSRP, Dr Ashwini Rheka Sebastian, said the bank was injecting some $1.2 billion into the initiative to help address trade barriers and constraints in the sub-region.
She said the programme had identified a lack of information on trade barriers in the region, particularly in major trade corridors and commodities such as rice, soy, maize, poultry and tomatoes.
Dr Sebastian said the validation of the EATMS, a flagship initiative that aimed to identify and address trade barriers in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Togo, Chad and Niger, would help address such issues.
She said the next step was for the countries to validate their scores at the ECOWAS Ministerial Council in June, identify trade barriers and discuss ways to address them.
Dr Sebastian also called for the dissemination of knowledge gained from EATMS to traders, inspectors, decision-makers and policymakers at the country level.
The Minister of Agriculture, Eric Opoku, in a speech read on his behalf by his Technical Advisor, Kwesi Etu Bondeh, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening regional trade in West Africa, with focus on removing barriers and enhancing trade connectivity.
He said Ghana, a significant member of ECOWAS, had been actively supporting regional integration efforts, adding that it had been part of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), which was launched in 1979 to foster regional trade in agriculture and unprocessed products.
“President John Mahama has announced ongoing discussions to introduce direct daily flights between Accra and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and also strengthen diplomatic and economic relationships with neighbouring countries,” the minister added.
