The Deputy Minister-designate for Trade and Industry, Herbert Krapa says some initiatives have been put in place by the government to ensure various sectors in the country benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) programme.

According to the President's nominee, several committees and groups including inter-ministerial committee, steering committee, technical working groups have been set up to ensure the tourism sector, labour sector among others grow.

“A lot has been done in terms of positioning Ghana to take advantage of AfCFTA including the institutional support, the inter-ministerial committee, the steering committee, the technical working groups, and the stakeholders’ engagement platforms.

"All these have been put in place to ensure that Ghana takes good advantage of the platform.”

He disclosed these interventions during his vetting by Parliament's Appointments Committee on Tuesday, June 15.

To ensure the country reaps from this agreement that seeks to boost intra-African trade by 52.3 percent, he urged the incumbent government to invest in productive sectors as well as support companies with high productivity.

“I believe that going forward we need to identify products that have export potential, identify companies that have the capacity to do so, and also identify those that we will train to ensure we take full advantage of it,” he suggested.

The AfCFTA is an agreement among 54 African countries that seeks to establish a single market for goods and services, allowing for free movement of business travelers and investments.

Ghana has been given the mandate of coordinating the successful implementation of the agreement as it hosts the AfCFTA Secretariat.

As an autonomous organ of the African Union, the Secretariat has been charged with implementing the decisions of the higher organs of the body in respect of the wide array of areas covered by the Agreement, ranging from industrialization to intellectual property, and from trade in professional services to the harmonisation of standards for manufactured goods.