Ghana committed to African Integration – Mahama

President John Mahama on Wednesday inaugurated a new African think thank, the Centre for Regional Integration in Africa.

In his inaugural address, President Mahama said the integration process, especially in the West African subregion, will be greatly enhanced when there is appropriate infrastructure to ensure inter-connections and free movement of goods and services.

The free movement of goods and services, Mr. Mahama noted, will improve income and productivity among the citizens of member states.

The Centre for Regional Integration in Africa (CRIA), founded by Professor S. K. B. Asante is aimed at providing institutional support at policy, technical and intellectual levels to contribute to the achievement of the goals and objectives of integration schemes in Africa.

CRIA has a vision to promote regionalism as a key element of African development strategies while also serving as a focal point of research and analysis on policy, issues and problems relating to the sub-regional and regional integration process in Africa.

According to President Mahama, the integration of the continent started with the Pan African struggles to bring the African people together to improve their lives.

Mr. Mahama stated that creating a common platform for shared values makes integration easier, adding that building and sharing capacity is key to African integration.

President Mahama was concerned that human interference and the activities of people given the responsibility implement ECOWAS protocol and guidelines have created trade bottlenecks through the collection of bribes at control points thus delaying the delivery times of goods and services.