Since the inception of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), many entrepreneurs and businesses have been urged to participate in making the dream a reality.

The AfCFTA is geared towards the elimination or reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers amongst the 54 Countries that agreed to be members of the bloc by providing a single market for goods and services, facilitated by movement of persons to deepen the economic integration and prosperity of the African continent.

One of these benefits of the pact will be an increase in investment in the distribution and logistics supply chain to accelerate cross-border trades, a development that businesses can take advantage of.

CDM Fashion Couture is not oblivious of this aspect.

The company is into designing attires, high-end academic gowns among others for higher learning institutions in Ghana and across the continent.

In 2020, it was one of the local companies that diversified into the design of facemasks to augment the country’s fight against the novel coronavirus.

As the sub-region picks itself back up from the impact of the pandemic, Cecil Duddley Mends says the AfCFTA is the way to go.

Cecil’s company imports fabrics and other raw materials from neighbouring Nigeria and other countries for business.

He believes a regional coalition like the AfCFTA is one of the best routes towards a holistic recovery both socially and economically.

On the larger scale, he insisted that “if AfCTA is coming on board with this free trade, it is going to make our work much easier so that we import, we sew and in turn export to most of the West African countries.”

He made these comments on the Single African Market Programme.

CDM Couture’s gowns have been worn by President Akufo-Addo, Gambian President Adama Barrow, Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio, Liberian President George Oppong Weah, former President John Kufuor, and former President Jerry John Rawlings among other prominent personalities.

This intervention will ensure the promotion of a single-African market and boost intra-African trade.

Cecil Duddley Mends also doubles as the Rector for CDM School of Design (CDMSD), one of Accra’s fashion schools blazing the trail on the skill development front as far as the garment-making terrain is concerned.

The school prioritizes the exploration of technologies and the acquisition of practical skills, understanding and knowledge and its impartation in the teeming Ghanaian youth.

Certificate in Fashion and Design, Diploma in Fashion, Pathway programmes, and other preparatory courses fall within the scope of programmes run by CDMSD.