Ghana’s Minister Calls for Breakdown of Barriers Impeding Trading Among West African Countries

Ghana’s Minister Calls for Breakdown of Barriers Impeding Trading Among West African Countries

… Invites Nigerian Investors to Come Over to Ghana to Invest

By: Michael Mike

Ghanaian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable Samuel Ablakwa has called for tumbling down of the artificial barriers impeding trading among West African countries.

Speaking in Abuja at the weekend during a visit to River Park Estate, a massive investment by Ghanaian entrepreneurs in Nigeria, as part of his official visit to Nigeria, Ablakwa said the 50th Anniversary of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should be used to reinvigorate the push to encourage more trading and investment by citizens of the subregion in the countries of the subregion.

He said the recent decision of American President Donald Trump to stop aids to Africa should be an eye opener for countries in West Africa and the rest Africa to encourage trading and investment among themselves and equally embrace Africa first before others.

On the River Park Estate in Abuja, the Minister said: “When Dr. Kwame Nkrumah proclaimed at our independence in March 1957 that we will show the world that the black man is capable of managing his own affairs. This is representative of that, and I am really inspired about what has been achieved here.

“It shows that when we come together, Ghana, Nigeria, ECOWAS, the rest of Africa and we bring down all of those artificial borders, those artificial borders which really do not mean anything because it cannot separate us. They were so haphazardly done, so hurriedly done during the scramble for Africa, just to share the continent and its resources amongst European colonialists, but over the years, we have just allowed those artificial boundaries to divide us, but today, what we see here is that those boundaries can no longer divide us, and that we transcend those artificial boundaries.

“So from that Berlin artificial division. We are here in Abuja to see what pan Africanism is about, that we can come together. We can unite. We can put our shoulders to the wheel, and we can achieve greatness.

“What this also represents is a new narrative that when we talk about investors, we should not always be looking outside the continent. That we can have African investors and we can open our countries to each other.

“Nigerians can come into Ghana, invest, create jobs, transform our countries. And it should be possible for Ghanaians to come into Nigeria and also create jobs and transform the landscape, transform the kaleidoscope of Nigeria, and that is what we see today. Interestingly, we are speaking at a time that we mark, 50 years of ECOWAS. And many have said that the ECOWAS dream, the dream of sub regional integration, has not yet been achieved as envisioned by our founding fathers, but what we see here today tells us that that dream is alive and that we can come together and transform our sub region, transform our continent, create real opportunities for our people,

“And those opportunities can lead to the progress that Africa needs. And speaking about the state of our continent, there is no other time to reflect on how we should come together and do it ourselves than this time, if we look at what is happening internationally? We are seeing a rise in nationalism. We are seeing the imposition of tariffs. We are seeing a rise in defense budgets. And where are they diverting those resources from? They are diverting resources meant for aid, resources meant for international cooperation, to strengthen their national defense. And many are crying that it turns out that Africa is not really a priority to some of our traditional partners. We have held in high esteem for many, many years that many have described as tragic, but some of us see it as a silver lining. We see it as an opportunity to look within, to build resilience, to come together and to forge our own path towards the progress and development of our continent.

“We can no longer rely on others. We must rely on ourselves and what is happening now should not bring despair. It should rather make us stronger. It should rather make us bolder, and it should make us more courageous, to look within, to dig deep and to come up with solutions that will help our continent progress. And so this is a story that the Foreign Ministry of Ghana is happy to project, and we are going to showcase this as a blueprint of what can be achieved, not only in Abuja, but I believe it can be achieved in Cotonou. It can be achieved in Ouagadougou. It can be achieved in Johannesburg. It can be achieved in many, many other places on the continent. We just have to come together. And once there is a will, there will always be away.”

He added that: “The time has come for Africans to do more business amongst ourselves, to trade more amongst ourselves. And that was the whole vision behind the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.”

He lamented that: “If you look at the statistics, we don’t do business amongst ourselves. We don’t trade amongst ourselves. It’s below 20%, if you look at intra European trade, there’s an excess of 60% same for intra Asia trade, but intra Africa trade, it’s very, very low, and we need to really collapse those artificial barriers and invest in the business ecosystem, creating opportunities venture capital funds, nurturing young entrepreneurs, and we need to also consciously promote made in Africa, So it doesn’t matter where the entrepreneur comes from, and that’s why I’m excited to be here seeing what Ghanaian entrepreneurs have done here, with the support of the government in Nigeria facilitating we also are proud to say that we host a lot of Nigerian businesses in Ghana. If you come to Ghana, the banking sector really is controlled by Nigerian entrepreneurs.”

Earlier, in his welcome address, the MD/CEO of Jonah Capital Nigeria Limited; Houses for Africa Nigeria Limited and Mobus Property
Development, Kojo Mensah said as declared by President John Mahama and President Bola Tinubu in Accra that. “”The bond between Ghana and Nigeria is strong and cannot be broken,” those words resonate deeply here. For in River Park, we’ve turned that bond into action. Our collaboration is a rebuke to those who peddle division; it is a testament to the words of the Ashanti proverb: “When brothers unite, the walls of the city shake.””

He said “Africa’s future will not be written in Beijing, Washington, or Brussels— it will be written here, by us. While global partnerships are vital, the greatest catalyst for our growth lies within our subregion. River Park Estate stands as evidence: over 75% of our workforce is Nigerian, 20% Ghanaian, and 5% from other ECOWAS nations.”

He added: “Together, we’ve generated thousands of jobs, spurred ancillary industries, and contributed over $250 million to Nigeria’s GDP. This is the power of intra-African collaboration. Let River Park be a blueprint—a clarion call for Ghanaian and Nigerian businesses to invest boldly in one another’s markets. Let us dismantle barriers, not build them. Let us compete not for crumbs, but for continental supremacy.”

Ghana’s Minister Calls for Breakdown of Barriers Impeding Trading Among West African Countries