The University of Ghana Chapter of Ghana International Trade and Finance (GITFiC) - African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Club has been inaugurated in Accra.
The objective of the Club is to expose students of the University of Ghana to the AfCFTA initiative, and also to educate them on the benefits and opportunities associated with the programme.
AfCFTA is an initiative to create a single market in Africa with a population of 1.3 billion people with a combined Gross Domestic Product of $3.4 trillion.
The Greater Accra Chairman of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Mr Tsonam Cleanse Akpeloo, in his remarks, urged the students to take advantage of AfCFTA to create their own jobs and export to other African markets.
That, he said, would require of them to think outside the box and come out with ideas and products for export to other African countries.
Mr Akpeloo urged the students to take advantage of social media to market their products and learn new business ideas to harness the benefits of AfCFTA.
"AfCFTA has come to stay and there will be winners and losers. The winners will be those who conceptualise and come out with new products and ideas," he stated.
The Dean of Students of University of Ghana, Professor Rosina Kyeremanten, said though Africa had delayed in integrating its market, it was not late to do so.
She said Africa was the only largest trading block with a lot of resources.
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Prof. Kyeremanten called on the academia to help develop policies and train the necessary manpower to help Ghana to take advantage of the opportunities that the AfCFTA initiative brought, stressing that Ghana needed the right policies and negotiators to be able to benefit from AfCFTA.
Prof. Kyeremanten pledged that the Academia was ready to train people with the right skills and attitudes for the AfCFTA initiative.
The Head of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr Seidu M. Alidu, who delivered the keynote address on the topic "Revitalising the African Higher Education System in the Successful Implementation of AfCFTA", said the future of development was integration and lauded African leaders for the AfCFTA.
He said development had shifted from natural resources to human capital development, hence the need for AfCFTA to promote trade among African countries.
The Head of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana called for huge investment in research and development to help in evidence-based policies and solutions to the challenges facing the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of GITFiC, Selasi Koffi Ackom, said the objective of the programme was to bring academia into the discourse on AfCFTA.
According to him, academia had not been actively involved in the discussions on AfCFTA.
Mr Ackom said the formation of the GITFiC-AfCFTA Club would be extended to KNUST, University of Cape, UDS and other universities in the country.
