Rwanda and Ghana have garnered efforts towards fostering relationships that will facilitate the growth of intra-African trade under the African Free Trade Area (AfCTA) and chart ways to increase trade of goods and services from both countries.
According to the Rwanda Development Board statement, the move was agreed upon during the first in-person meeting dubbed Ghana x Rwanda Business Forum in Accra, Ghana on 27 October, where the delegations met and agreed to boost relationships that will support the growth of intra-Africa trade under the African Free Trade Area (AfCTA).
The forum organized by the Rwanda Development Board in partnership with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre with facilitation from the Rwanda High Commission attracted over 100 Ghanaian businessmen.
The Rwandan delegation, which consisted of the Minister of Trade and Industry of Rwanda, Dr. Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze, accompanied by other government officials and over 40 private companies participated in B2B meetings and site visits with their Ghanaian counterparts during the three-day summit.
Addressing participants at the forum, the Secretary General of the AfCTA, Wamkele Mene, emphasized the importance of such events which are building blocks to achieving Africa’s ambitious targets for intra-Africa trade.
“Increasing multilateral trade includes increasing bilateral trade and thus this initiative of the business forum is so important for the AfCTA’s success in achieving Africa’s agenda of bolstering free movement of goods, services and people.
Changing the story of Africa and increasing trading with one another is going to be challenging but it worth every effort. Nobody is going to improve our continent for us, we must do it ourselves and the potential is there. We just need to be intentional.” Mene said in a statement.
On another hand, Rwanda’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Hon. Dr. Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze said Let us access the market with goods and services both in quantity and in quality, and we are better positioned to utilize economies of scale if we do this as an African partnership.
On his part, Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Hon. Herbert Krapa said; “Everything we have done since 2017 has been focused on empowering SME’s and the private sector to grow because when SME’s grow, the economy grows.”
Julienne Sina of Enterprise Urwibutso, one of the Rwanda businessmen that participated in the event noted that while their Akabanga Chilli oil had already debuted on the Ghanaian market, the forum helped them make further progress.
“Thanks to this trade mission and the facilitation we were accorded by the organizer, I was able to work with our distributor in Ghana to secure display shelves in big and high-end supermarkets,” he said.
The growth in trade between Ghana and Rwanda is expected to deepen economic and trade cooperation between the two countries to an enabling environment and the AfCTA.
Rwanda and Ghana are among the seven countries that began trading under the AfCTA framework in a pilot phase. Others include Tanzania, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya and Mauritius.