The Dean of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School, Prof. Ernest Kofi Abotsi has called for more financing to make the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) a success.

According to him, intra African trade among African countries will still be low if measures are not put in place to finance movements of goods and people on the continent.

Prof. Abotsi was speaking at UPSA Law School’s Africa Trade Round Table 5 on the theme “Trade Financing and Pan African Settlement System”.

He argued that it is important to get organizations such as the Afrexim Bank and the African Development Bank to advance funding to businesses on the continent through government to make the AfCFTA effective.

“West Africa has seen grandiose projects that went nowhere. And part of the reason they went nowhere is because policies go nowhere in the absence of financing” he said.

“The AfCFTA, frankly is going nowhere in the absence of trade finance. If you don’t have trade financing, there’s no trade period!”.

Citing Europe as an example, Prof. Abotsi said with effective infrastructural project, African countries can be easily linked to ease the movement of people and goods.

“The reason why people move easily in Europe is because of trade, the political integration of Europe is to allow similar businesses in Europe to interact”.

“In Europe, people wake up in the morning, they are moving flowers from Holland to England. They don’t have to worry so much about so many border bureaucracy issues. It all has to do with similar trades. Now you can’t indulge in trade in the absence of proper financing”.

On his part, the West African Chief Operating Officer of the Afrexim Bank, Eric Intong underscored the need for Africa countries to begin trading in local currencies on the continent as against the use of the dollar.