The Ghana International Trade and Finance Conference (GITFiC) has organised its 6th conference in Accra with a call on participants to use the knowledge gained to make positive impact on the Africa continent.
The two-day conference would have panel discussions on the first day on the topic: “Towards an Effective and Efficient Mobile Money Transactional Penetrations in Africa; A Catalyst to solving Cross Border Payment and Settlement, an Anticipated – Barrier within the AfCFTA; – The Role of Financial Regulators and Stakeholders.”
On the second day, they would treat topics like “Leveraging on the pillars of Trade-Finance – A catalyst for Industrial Growth and Acceleration Post Pandemic; the Role of Payment, Financing, Risk Mitigation and Access to Information.”
“Measuring the Acceptability and Adaptation Level of the AfCFTA on the African Continent a Year after Implementation of the 1st Phase; – Where do we stand in terms of Trade in Goods, Tradce in Service, and Dispute Resolution Protocol (Policy Direction) with focus on the Role of Africa’s Local Governance Structures in preparing their various Business Communities to take advantage.”
Mr Tsonam Cleanse Akpeloo, Chairman, Association of Ghana Industries (AGIs), who made the call said the time to make an impact was ripe because “We are in the face of transition towards a brighter future for Africa, towards deepening relationships, towards fulfilling intra-Africa trade and transition from the pandemic.”
He said the transition signified hope and potential for tremendous change and that the AGIs held the key to transforming Africa continent by impacting the lives of ordinary African, nations and generations.
Mr Akpeloo said over the years, the GITFiC had distinguished itself in terms of the quality and content of the conference and emerged as the pre-eminent platform for deepening intra-Africa trade, regional integration, trade liberalization, and financial inclusion within Africa.
He stated that from the perspective of industry, GITFiC played a pivotal role in facilitating conversations that were key to ensure broad engagement.
“It is our ultimate desire to leverage these engagements to skill up and grow our businesses to become large-scale multinational organisations that would bring economic growth, job creation, social mobility, and ultimately make a significant impact,” the Chairman said.
He urged the participants to broaden their engagement saying; “We must move from policy to action to impact. The focus of interaction must shift towards building the capacity of African businesses, especially the small and medium businesses to begin to see the impact of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
He said the private sector and the industry must begin to roll out initiatives that would help break the barriers of intra-Africa trade, which should be an urgent priority and that it should not be left for the governments alone to undertake.
“Just as private initiatives brought mobile money to engender financial inclusion, we can adopt innovative solutions to address challenges such as fraudulent trading, logistics, transportation as well as payment systems,” Mr Akpeloo stated.
Mr Selasi Koffi Ackom, the Chief Executive Officer of GITFiC in a welcome address said the 6th conference sought to consolidate the 5th conference for the AfCFTA and the role of local governance in helping in sensitization, education, and preparing the minds of the business community within the metropolitan, municipal, and district localities.
