
Ghana has appealed to Nigeria to sign the @African Free Trade Area
Agreement aimed at providing single continental market for goods and
services.
President Nana Akufo-Addo said that, “Nigeria, with her dynamic
population, sense of enterprise of her people, and the size of her
economy is an automatic leader of any regional or continental market’’.
He explained that Nigeria has nothing to be afraid of, but, on the contrary, should be the major beneficiary of any such market.
He spoke at the 58th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, in Abuja, Nigeria, on Monday.
The President said Africa’s small countries would continue to struggle if they do it alone.’
The accelerated economic integration of committed nations, he said,
will breathe new life into the African Union, and deliver the benefits
of African integration to the doorsteps of Africans.
“Hence, the critical importance of the Continental Free Trade Area
Agreement, which has been signed by a majority of countries on the
continent, but ratified only by a handful, including Ghana.
“It is imperative that the 22-minimum number of country
ratifications, required to bring it into effect, be met as soon as
possible,” he added.
A major deficit of our economic development, @President Akufo-Addo
explained, has been the low level of intra-Africa trade that has
characterized the performance of African economies up till now.
In 2000, intra-regional trade accounted for 10% of Africa’s total
trade and increased marginally to 11% in 2015. Trading amongst members
of the European Union, for example, amounted to 70% in 2015.
“I believe it is extremely important for the welfare of the 1.2
billion people of the continent that we, the leaders, demonstrate a
strong political will to operationalize the African Common Market. It is
my fervent hope that Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, will very soon
assent to this Agreement,” he said.
With West Africa’s current population of 350 million set to reach a
population of 500 million in 20 years, and likewise Africa’s set to
increase from 1.2 million to 2 billion people in 20 years, the President
noted that “genuine regional and continental markets in Africa should
be in the mutual interests of Ghana and Nigeria.”
These markets, the President stressed, “will present immense
opportunities to bring prosperity to our peoples with hard work,
creativity, and enterprise.”
The success of the Continental Free Trade Area, in President
Akufo-Addo’s view, is a function of the peace and security of the
continent.
“All right-thinking persons must support the efforts that are being
made to tackle the menace of terrorism, such as Boko Haram and the
Jihadist insurgencies in the Sahel. It is a collective struggle for
civilized governance that must engage us all,” he urged.
Touching on education, President Akufo-Addo urged African leaders to
start investing in their children and young people as the surest way to
guarantee a prosperous future.
He explained that in September 2017, he launched the Free Senior High
School policy in Ghana, which is meant to ensure that all Ghanaian
children attain a minimum of senior high school education.
“In the first year of its implementation, ninety thousand (90,000)
more Ghanaian children gained access to Senior High School in 2017 than
in 2016. It is anticipated that in September this year, one hundred and
eighty thousand (180,000) more children will be admitted into senior
high school,” he said.
“We want to make sure that every Ghanaian child, no matter the
circumstances of their birth, no matter where they are born, are not
denied an education. This is the only way we can create an educated
workforce to accelerate the process of development.”
-NAN
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