The chair of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has called on African governments to level up the rate of industrialisation on the continent to gain influence on the global market.
Otchere-Darko said despite the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and intra-African trade there is more work to be done to boost the local sector. Speaking at the commonwealth business forum in Rwanda, Otchere-Darko advocated a strategic approach in adding value to the continent’s industrialisation drive.
He said, “In order for Africa to gain leverage in global trade or even trade within the continent governments across Africa need to take industrialisation seriously because really even without us industrialising as much as we should, about 66% or so intra-African trade is in manufactured goods.”
Otchere-Darko added, “So it tells you the potential if we do more and I will use Ghana as an example; over the last five years a government set up ‘One District One Factory’, essential it means is that they identify the area that the district may have a sort of advantage … and then help fund to build a factory there. What that is doing is that it is allowing districts across the country [a lot of which are agro-based] to add processing so they then are embedded in the supply chain and once you do that you create more jobs.”
“Yes, we can talk about intra-African trade, we can talk about AfCFTA but if we don’t take a strategic policy decision across the continent to industrialise, we will struggle…”
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