The report of two Ghanaian companies which have secured licences to export their products to any member country of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and plans to increase revenue from the tourism sector to $6 billion within the next three years are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.The Graphic reports that two Ghanaian companies have secured licences to export their products to any member country of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
They are Kasapreko Company Limited and Ghandour Cosmetics Limited.
Kasapreko successfully exported a 20-footer container of alcoholic beverages to South Africa by air, while Ghandour Cosmetics also shipped a 20-footer container of cosmetic products to Guinea by sea last month.
A Senior Technical Advisor at the (Ghana) National AfCFTA Coordination Office, Dr. Fareed Arthur, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Accra last Tuesday, explained that the office, which serves as the liaison between Ghana and the AfCFTA Secretariat, assisted the companies to meet the necessary protocols for the maiden shipment of their consignments.
“Two different consignments with the needed documentations and processes have already been exported to test Ghana’s readiness under the initiative. It was also used to assess the forms and format of documentations to accompany consignments,” he said.
To trade under the initiative, Dr. Arthur explained, a company needed a certificate of origin issued by a competent authority, such as the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
The newspaper says that the Minister designate for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, has outlined plans to increase revenue from the sector to $6 billion within the next three years.
Currently, data from the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) indicate that the sector contributed $1 billion to the economy last year, with global projections indicating that the figure could increase to $1.2 billion by the close of the year.
The Minister designate, who made an ambitious $5-billion projection of inflow within his first two years in office when given the nod, insisted that it was very possible, considering the fact that the country raked in $3.3 billion in 2019 due to the Year of Return initiative.
Dr. Awal was, therefore, confident that initiatives such as the Year of Return and Beyond the Return, a further improvement of tourist sites and Ghana’s arts and culture would help achieve that target.
He said his plan was to make the tourism sector the number one foreign […]
