The Ministry of Communications and Digitalization (MoCD) and
the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC), as part of
government’s commitment to accelerate the country’s digital agenda, have
launched the “African Continental Free Trade Agreement, (AfCFTA) Hub” which
seeks to promote, enhance and advance digital trading, electronic commerce,
marketplace and general services.
Launching the initiative on Monday, 29th August 2022 in
Accra, the Sector Minister, Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (MP) stated that, the
rollout of the AfCFTA Hub was to ensure that Ghanaian businesses have a trusted
profile beyond Ghana, to strengthen the hands of industry and regulators to
fight fraudsters who will also like to use AfCFTA to regionalise their
nefarious activities.
She said that, Ghana as a continental leader in ICT
innovation and adoption, sees the Hub as an opportunity to export its ICT goods
and services across Africa and beyond, and some of those prospects have already
materialized.
“AfCFTA Hub should make it easier for Technology Startups,
Small Medium Enterprise (SME's), and other producers of ICT goods and services
to find markets across Africa, stressing the point that "Our business
process outsourcing landscape can be revitalized by AfCFTA as Ghana becomes a
hub for call center, data processing, data science and various digital services
for businesses all over the continent and beyond.”
According to her, the AfCFTA Hub was designed among other
things to play the role of aggregating content and tools to capacitate
businesses across the country as well upgrade their know-how to engage more
forcefully in export markets beyond Ghana.
The Minister explained that the mechanisms of how we harness
AfCFTA itself with regards to the process of trading, financing trade,
discovering our market strengths and gaps to fill’ the means of settlement, how
the goods will leave our warehouses and be received on the other side; and the
tools for linking our producers with consumers in other African countries and
vice versa, all of these are being digitised and made available to all
stakeholders through the AfCFTA Hub.
Risk management is also key and the related ProPer Seals
platform, currently being deployed by the FDA, plays a critical role.
“It is the reality of a comprehensive end-to-end identity
management system interlinked with credit management, human security, business
facilitation, enhanced government administration and even the improvement of
democracy itself. It is the reality of a new smart working environment across the
public services enabled by productivity software and dramatically improved
connectivity. It is the reality of the common platform, Ghana Card, SIM Card
Registration, Smart Workplace, e-Transform, Obaatanpa, Trancop, digital
addressing, fintechs and the revamp of the national fibreoptic network,” she
noted.
The Minister indicated that, as the accelerated AfCFTA Guided
Trade Initiative commences in pilot form with Ghana and six other proactive
African countries taking charge, "we shall commence onboarding young
entrepreneurs, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), startups and all digital
marketplace actors across the country onto the AfCFTA Hub, where they can
obtain a free AfCFTA Number".
The AfCFTA Number, according to her was the powerful seed of
a single continental trust-building system that would complement other
AfCFTA-enabling instruments such as the PAPSS, MANSA, Digital Green Corridor
and e-Tariff mechanisms developed by the AfCFTA Secretariat, African Union, the
4D Consortium and trusted partners like Afreximbank and AfroChampions.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful added that, with the AfCFTA number,
Ghanaian enterprises were guarantee a sure and secure navigational tool as well
as a trusted profile to speed up connections across the continent for business.
She added that, together with the AfCFTA Common Transaction
ID, the AfCFTA Number would also serve critical anti-fraud and crime-fighting
purposes domestically and regionally.
She said that the Hub would build confidence in both the
entities and individuals who use their services locally and internationally.
Adding that it was expected to create a true one stop shop akin to our own
Amazon, EBay or Alibaba.
She used the forum to use to called on businesses and
industry players to speed up the adoption of the AfCFTA Number and the AfCFTA
Common Transaction ID frameworks in Ghana.
According to her, all persons and enterprises engaged in the
business of courier, postal, delivery, logistics, ride-sharing, e-commerce,
digital trading and any enterprise of that nature are required to obtain an
AfCFTA Number at no cost at www.afcfta.app.
The regulation of such enterprises which hitherto has been a
grey area will be strengthened by requiring electronic registration with Postal
and Courier Services Regulatory Commission, the National Information Technology
Agency (NITA) and the Cybersecurity Authority through the digital interface
available on the AfCFTA Hub at www.afcfta.app.
Source: Peacefmonline.com