Ghana’s delegation to ECOWAS Parliament has assured of measures to end the age-old trade feud between Ghanaian and Nigerian traders once and for all.
Speaker of Ghana’s parliament Alban Bagbin on a trip to Nigeria announced a decision to review the GIPC Act which bars foreigners from engaging in the retail business.
Speaking to Starr News at an impending engagement on delocalized ECOWAS meeting next week at Winneba, leader of Ghana’s delegation to the sub-regional Parliament Alexander Afenyo-Markin stated all unfair trade practices in both Ghana and Nigeria must end.
He said “there is an agenda. The essence of this telecommunication and impact on cyberspace and all that. These are matters that could come up in the session. But that notwithstanding, I’m sure that members are free to raise some of these concerns.”
“I mean when it comes to this integration and trade, we say we want to create a borderless sub-region, and then also we want to have one market. One market requires that we create, also, the balances to have some level playing field. So, if there are some incentives in one area and another area has no such incentives, it creates some imbalance when somebody gets access to that market.”
Touching on Ghana’s retail trade law, he indicated that “this law has created a lot of problems between us and Nigeria and I believe that when Rt Hon Speaker raised it, it’s something that we need to look at critically. I can say so and see how we can create a level playing field.”
“We may have to specifically look at how we are affected and if there is any imbalance in terms of resource availability, in terms of the laws, we can specifically deal with it. And this issue of Ghana-Nigeria ends once and for all.”
He told the media “they are our big brothers, we’ve worked together, this whole Ecowas thing was really championed initially by Ghana and Nigeria. We played a critical role, we can do better than we’ve done so far.”
Touching on the upcoming delocalized meeting scheduled for 27th of this month, spokesperson for Ghana’s delegation to ECOWAS Parliament Mahama Ayariga stated the meeting will seek to remove telecommunication barriers in the sub-region including roaming charges.
