Stakeholders at a seminar urged for more education on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement's implementation in order to assist indigenous enterprises.
They said that the Ghana National Coordinating Office of the AfCFTA, which is part of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, as well as the AfCFTA Secretariat, should give education on the AfCFTA's activities.
Many SMEs were not taking advantage of the Agreement because they did not comprehend it, according to Mr Augustine B. Kidisil, a lecturer at the University of Ghana Law School.
Mr Kidisil was addressing in Accra at a conference on the AfCFTA operationalization for decent work hosted by ActionAid Ghana and the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU). "AfCFTA Agreement and Regional Economic Integration Reflections and Opportunities for Decent Work and Human Security," was the subject of the event.
The purpose of the event, which was sponsored by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, was to give Civil Society Organizations a platform to engage in campaigns and lobbying against modern slavery, immoral labour, and human insecurity.
It was also intended to serve as a forum for discussion of the AfCFTA Agreement's influence on the acceleration of regional economic value chains, as well as its implications for decent work standards and human security.
After discussions began on June 15, 2015, trading under the AfCFTA began in earnest on January 1, 2021.
According to him, instructional initiatives should focus on the Agreement's procedures, processes, and protocols. According to the lecturer, each participating Member State must develop its own plans and processes to take use of the Agreement's potential.
The AfCFTA Secretariat, according to Madam Mary Agyekum, Senior Legal Officer, has established an adjustment fund to assist nations and institutions affected by the Agreement's implementation.
She stated that one of the major obstacles to implementation was the infrastructure gap, which existed since the Member States were at different levels of development.
The forum will also engage with the AfCFTA Secretariat to preserve the rights and dignity of the vulnerable in an integrated regional economy, according to Mr John Nkaw, Interim Country Director for ActionAid Ghana.
Key stakeholders should have a better knowledge of the AfCFTA Agreement and its anticipated influence on the regional economic value chain, he added.
Mr Nkaw stated that the ActionAid Ghana Mission Priority two of the Country Strategy Paper Six was dignified work.
The advocacy, according to the Country Director, was based on a human rights-based strategy and a female leadership viewpoint in order to address the structural causes and manifestations of poverty and inequality.
Despite substantial efforts by the human trafficking secretariat under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and other stakeholders to eliminate immoral work practices, he added, "we still have work to do to guarantee that Ghana fulfills this aim." Mr. Nkaw stressed the need of paying attention to the AfCFTA's potential to streamline fair labor standards, anti-human trafficking, and anti-modern slavery actions and systems across Africa.