The Chief Executive Officer of the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), Nana Osei Bonsu, has bemoaned the current economic downturn affecting Ghanaian businesses.

According to him, the lackadaisical approach by government in addressing some key challenges is affecting business operations of the private sector.

Among the challenges, Nana Osei Bonsu highlighted power outages and high lending rate as some of the few factors affecting businesses.

He said Ghanaian businesses seem unready to compete with other companies from the sub-region which he said is disturbing.

"I see that we are not achieving results. The private sector will fail and fail miserably looking at the current challenges. The competition is coming from other countries. They have more powers and capacities. If we don't put our house together, we may not benefit from the AfCFTA,"he bemoaned

He, however outlined some policies to aid these private businesses from Ghana to take advantage of the trade agreement.

According to him, there should be more policy engagement with government and other key stakeholders.

He also called for collaboration among member states trading together to push for a common regulatory framework that will aid their operations.

"We are not entirely out because I think we can have MoUs with some of the key players so we don't trade with the dollar or the Euro. We need a policy direction and that can help us. Cost of doing business has been a key issue and we need to address that", he said.

 "The private sector has to grow. The economy has to grow. The private sector cannot be stagnant in whatever ways, “he said.