Mahama inaugurates AEDAC to boost Ghana’s export

President John Dramani Mahama has inaugurated the Accelerated Export Development Advisory Committee (AEDAC) arsenic portion of efforts to alteration Ghana into an export-led economy.

The 19-member committee, chaired by the President, marks the fulfillment of his 2024 run committedness to personally enactment with manufacture leaders to region the bottlenecks and disincentives hindering the accelerated enlargement of Ghana’s export sector.

This inaugural is intended to marque Made-in-Ghana goods much disposable and appreciated crossed the African continent and successful the planetary marketplace.

The determination coincides with his 24-Hour Economy plan, aimed astatine boosting economical maturation and creating occupation opportunities crossed the country.

President Mahama stated that nether the AEDAC and the National Export Development Strategy, the extremity is to summation Ghana’s non-traditional export net from $3.5 cardinal annually to astatine slightest $10 cardinal by 2030.

He noted that achieving this people would necessitate prioritizing worth summation and economical diversification.

He emphasized that Ghana’s existent exports stay dominated by low-complexity earthy materials, specified arsenic gold, cocoa, cashew, and timber, each mostly exported successful their earthy state.

The President said the inauguration of the AEDAC represents a captious measurement successful the country’s corporate resoluteness to alteration its system done competitory exports, inclusive industrialization, and purposeful integration into determination and planetary markets.

He acknowledged that contempt its important potential, Ghana’s export assemblage is hampered by entrenched bottlenecks.

“Nearly 47 percent of Ghanaian exporters study facing superior commercialized obstacles, with non-tariff measures and procedural delays accounting for astir of these challenges,” helium stated.

He added: “Over 52 percent of the complaints subordinate to costly and time-consuming method regulations, with aggregate poorly coordinated agencies imposing requirements. An exporter whitethorn request up to 16 antithetic documents conscionable to get a certificate of origin.”

He noted that the Ghana Standards Authority, tasked with safeguarding merchandise quality, is often under-resourced. At the aforesaid time, the lack of accredited section laboratories forces exporters to trust connected overseas investigating facilities, expanding costs and causing unnecessary delays.

He further explained that astatine the nation’s ports, overlapping inspections, prolonged clearance times, and informal fees make further burdens for exporters.

According to the International Trade Centre, these inefficiencies outgo Ghana up to $4.3 cardinal successful mislaid export gross each year.

In the fisheries sector, helium said, repeated alerts from the European Union astir amerciable fishing, hydrocarbon, and dense metallic contamination person led to impermanent bans connected food exports, resulting successful important reputational damage.

President Mahama besides highlighted that Ghana ranks 110 retired of 133 countries connected the Global Economic Complexity Index.

“This indispensable change. We volition enactment our backstage assemblage partners to put successful agri-processing and airy manufacturing,” helium said.

He added that AEDAC would collaborate intimately with the backstage sector, improvement partners, academia, and determination institutions to dismantle barriers, place caller export opportunities, and thrust coordinated reform.

Goosie Tanoh, Presidential Advisor for the 24-Hour Economy, stated that the AEDAC programme envisions a resilient, self-reliant, and globally competitory system that optimizes plus utilization and creates worth for each citizens, particularly the astir vulnerable.

He said the programme is built astir 3 cardinal pillars: accumulation transformation, marketplace systems efficiency, and quality superior development.