Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka-Lindsey has given hope to the trade and commerce industry as Ghana is weaning itself from donor support and creating an industrial economy.

According to him, there is the need to structure and transform the economy so that we can bolster and enhance our trade with other countries.

Speaking at the launch of a New Trade Report – maximizing gains from Ghana’s Trade Partnership by IMANI Ghana, he mentioned that we can not only rely on in-land trade investment to raise capital and grow our economy rather target countries across the globe.

That, he explained changes the dynamics of the market and in achieving such a status, there must be assessment of policies and constructive dialogue amongst government, private sector and Civil Society Organization (CSOs).

He therefore lauded the initiative by IMANI Ghana to have come out with such a report.

According to the report, Ghana has not made much gains from the interim EPA agreement – this is evident by the persistent trade deficit over the years as compared to our neighbour Cote d’Ivoire.

However, there has been improvement in the export of cocoa, rubber, processed vegetables.

It also highlighted that African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), presents potential for expansion of Ghana’s export to US; but this opportunity remains largely unexploited.

Furthermore, there have been increases in trade volumes by 776% from $683 in 2006 to $5.9bn in 2016. In the area of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, Ghana has struggled to meet the standard requirement.

In explaining the report and the necessary recommendations, a Research Associate of IMANI Africa, Ms. Anita Nkrumah remarked that we must increase training to build the capacity of exporters to enhance their ability to source funding.

And as well increase Ghana Standard Authority’s capacity in standards development and establish Ghana Certification Body.