Businesses must take advantage of AfCFTA to become competitive – GNCCI

The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) has advised businesses to take advantage of Ghana’s hosting of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat to become competitive.

Nana Dr. Appiagyei Dankawoso I, President, GNCCI, said this when he was accompanied by executive members of the Chamber from Accra and Tema on a business visit to Zonda Tec Assembling plant in Tema.

He said the AfCFTA secretariat provided a bigger platform for Ghanaian businesses to thrive.

Nana Dankawoso asked Ghanaian entrepreneurs to take advantage of government policies including long term funding from the EXIM Bank to expand their businesses.

He encouraged them to add value to their produce as well as build capacity to enable Africa move from importation to exportation through industrialization which would lead to job creation and better livelihood for the people.

He said the Chamber would serve as a link between the private sector and the government to enable members to strategize and engage policy makers on how best to benefit from AfCFTA.

On the visit to Zonda, he said his outfit periodically engaged the business community to promote and protect their operations.

Nana Dankawoso added that their visit was to enable them familiarize themselves with the activities of Zonda Tec as well as the challenges it faced in the automobile industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chamber, he noted, encouraged the business community to adopt modern operations and management strategies and systems to ensure safe and healthy working environments in order to stay competitive.

He commended Zonda for contributing to the economic and industrial growth of the country especially in the automobile sector through job creation and training.

Ms Yang Yang, Chief Executive Officer of Zonda, thanked the Chamber for the visit and stated that the company had not regretted investing in Ghana, saying Zonda had enjoyed a cordial business relationship with the country.

She told the Ghana News Agency that she was happy to invest in people by training mechanics of clients, saying in 2019 the company assembled over 300 trucks at its assembly plant in Tema which was opened under the ‘One District, One Factory’ policy of government.

Zonda Tec Ghana Limited is a heavy-duty vehicle trading company which started operating in Ghana in 2013. Their products included oil and water tankers, tipper trucks, LPG tankers, semi-trailers, concrete mixtures, flats and lower beds, pay loaders, road rollers and backhoe loaders among others.

The visiting members of the GNCCI toured the company’s assembling plant, training centre, warehouse and service centre.