By InfactNG
The Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria, H. E. Rashid Bawa has said that plans are on the way for Ghana to partner with Nigeria in non-oil sector.
The Envoy stated this at the 2022 Ghana Nigeria Business Council CEO Forum on Thursday.
Bawa explained that the partnership specifically will thus far fall into the agricultural sector such as cassava and ginger production.
“This is the first Ghana Business Council Meeting. We are looking at various areas of cooperation. There have been series of meetings in the last few days. We are looking at the non-oil sector; in the area of cassava and ginger production.”
Describing the relationship between Nigeria and Ghana over the years, Bawa said “It is difficult to put a finger on the number of Nigerians visiting Ghana for various reasons daily, and vice versa. However, according to a report published by the US Department of Economic and Social Studies in 2019, there were more Ghanaians resident in Nigeria than any other country in the world with 23,302 persons. This was followed by Ghanaians living in UK and the US.”
The forum which is historic according to Bawa is the first of its kind since the outbreak of the Corona Virus pandemic and the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA.
Bawa added that “the forum aims to encourage the private sector operatives of our two countries to pull resources together to be competitive when trading under AfCFTA.
“Also as you are aware, we have the framework of ECOWAS protocol in the last fourty years to promote this kind of activities and then we have the AfCFTA coming into fiction. Ghana-Nigeria have the biggest economies in West Africa region, it is high time we formalize these engagements in order to take full advantage of the potentials between both countries.”
Explaining what next after the forum, the envoy said “We don’t want it to be a one-time forum. We want to sustain it. As we speak, the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council and Ghana Investment Promotion Council are working out arrangement in ways they will have annual meetings among themselves.
“There will be coordination between Nigeria and Ghana businessmen. We believe that pretty soon, we are going to have certain collaboration that will be beneficial to both countries.”
