Daniel McKorley, the chairman of McDan Group of Companies, has proposed for the establishment of an African Trade Research Centre.
He said the centre will help African businesses to enhance their research which will eventually lead to increase in revenue.
McKorley said: “Africa is a green market and we need to have a research centre into African business. Singapore alone is contributing six percent to the global economy but Africa, a continent with over 50 countries who have signed the treaty are only contributing two percent. It’s a shame.
“Singapore is just a small place. Why can’t we also look at what is happening around the world and see how we can contribute towards trade? This is why the research centre is very important.”
Support towards education
McKorley also pledged his support towards education in Ghana, commending Ghanaian educational institutions for the quality of graduates they churn out each year to feed the job market. To this end, he donated a bus to the University of Professional Studies in Accra to aid their transportation system.
“It’s not just about this school. It’s about my support toward education in this country and actually, business as a whole. You can see many educational institutions are coming up and some are churning out a lot of mature students so that’s what motivated me to support them with the bus,” he added.
He was speaking to the media during a public lecture in his honour on the theme: “Creating the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs through AfCFTA’.”
AFCFTA phase II
Speaking at the event, the Secretary General of AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, said operational instruments involving phase II of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) are expected to be rolled out by August this year.
He explained that the protocols will include investment policy, competition policy and intellectual property rights among others.
“The AfCFTA therefore provides an institutional mechanism to address these trade barriers across the continent and move to a closer integration of all members. Phase I of the AfCFTA aims to reduce significantly, tariffs and non-tariff barriers to goods and advance in the liberalisation of trade in services.
“Phase II, involves agreements on investment, competition policy and intellectual property (IP) rights, while Phase III will involve provisions on e-commerce. The expectation is that negotiations on all these phases will be completed by the end of 2021,” Mene said.
Pan-African payment platform
Mene noted that the Pan-African Payment Platform is currently being piloted in six West African countries, explaining that the aim of his secretariat is to rollout the system throughout the continent by the end of the year.
The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) was formally launched by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) at the African Union extraordinary summit in July 2019. In December 2020, the interim Governing Council of PAPSS had their inaugural meeting in Cairo, Egypt which was a major step towards the operationalisation of the payment system.
Philip Abutiate
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