Ghana Resident Representative of the United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP), Dr Angela Lusigi, indicates the need to assess the impact of the Covid-19 on Africa’s small and medium enterprises in the country and build their capacities to be able to take advantage of the continent’s economic integration.
Speaking to Single African Market on the occasion of this year’s African Integration Day, she indicates that it is important for the government to ascertain the challenges of SMEs about Covid-19, adding that her office has partnered with the Ghana Statistical Service, World Bank and GIZ to carry out a survey to determine the impact of the pandemic on small businesses.
“SMEs are the key to the success of regional integration and from our perspective, it’s very important to see how we can unlock the potential whilst increasing investments of these businesses, who make up about 90percent of private sector businesses across Africa,” she says.
Aside from the Covid impact survey, Dr. Lusigi says the UNDP is working on some policy recommendations with the media to ensure that they will be well understood.
“We are also on the ground with young innovators because we believe that it is good to showcase innovations that are already on the ground by young innovators,” she adds.
According to the UNDP Ghana rep, the big question facing African leaders today is how they can ensure that regional integration and the African Continental Free Trade Area work for all of Africa’s people including its women and youth.
“There is the need to sensitize women and youth-led businesses to know the available opportunities in the AfCFTA. Already many actors are working on this but we urge all stakeholders—including the media—to come together and have platforms that will amplify this message.”
David Ofosu-Dorte, Executive Chairman of AB & David Africa, a pan-African business law firm and an executive member of Afro champions, on his part, calls on the formal sector to drag along the informal business community to understand the true meaning of integrating Africa’s economy.
“We need to sensitize our private sector both formal and informal; but what is more important is for the larger ones to ensure that they [informal sector] are part of the value chain and then gradually the public sector can formalize them; that’s how we can feel the real effect of the integration.
Mr. Ofosu-Dorte encourages that the informal sector of the economy and the general public must be informed on the relevance of the AfCFTA as a vehicle for African economic integration.
Failure to do that, he says, would see the likes of AfCFTA ostracizing these informal businesses and leaving them with a bitter ending.
He concludes by saying “If we are facing the fact, free trade has its downsides and we can avoid that by ensuring that the informal sector is integrated into the system. The AfCFTA itself places so much emphasis on SMEs and the formal sector businesses must take the campaign to everybody, especially the informal sector,”.
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