By Mariatou Ngum
On Wednesday, the ministry of trade, industry, regional integration, and employment held a productive meeting with Muhammed Njie, managing director of the national food security processing and marketing corporation (NFSPMC) on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Guided Trade Initiative (GTI), designed to enhance the entry of Gambian products into the wider AfCFTA market.
This initiative promises to provide valuable support and guidance to the country’s businesses, increasing market access and promoting the export of our local products.
Speaking during the meeting, Abdoulie Jammeh, the deputy permanent secretary of the ministry of trade, described the NFSPMC as an important government institution as they are the main exporters of end products such as groundnut.
Therefore, he informed Njie, that under the AfCFTA Guided Trade Initiative, members are required to identify companies that can serve as aggregators, and the Gambia as a country selected NFSPMC to be one of them.
Since 2022 when the initiative was launched, he said that they have seen a large number of countries interested to participate, noting that it started with 7 and now they have 39 countries that have expressed interest to participate under the GTI and Gambia is one of the countries.
Ousman Bojang, the director of trade, emphasised that they want the NFSPMC to be a player in the AfCFTA because they believed that the NFSPMC have the experience of exporting and also the capacity to serve as an aggregator and if they are fully on board, they can be able to take advantage of the AfCFTA given their capacity.
Muhammed Njie, the managing director of NFSPMC expressed delight in receiving the officials from the ministry of trade. He informed them that they do a lot of export to the neighboring countries on products such as crude oil, groundnut cakes among others. “Therefore, we will be delighted to participate in the AfCFTA as it will facilitate trade among the subregion,” he said.
As the national institution that deals with trade aggregation, MD Njie mentioned the capacity of the cooperation and the readiness to participate and support MSMEs participation in the AfCFTAand the GTI.
The AfCFTA Agreement promotes closer economic integration among subscribing countries and will, among other things, enable the region increase intra-regional trade through the elimination of import duties, barriers and distortions to trade such as quotas, and other non-tariff barriers.
Hence, the purpose of the Ministry’s visit to the NFSPMC is part of its public sensitization particularly to the business community on the significance and benefits of the AFCFTA.
The AfCFTA is one of the flagship projects of the Agenda 2063 of the African Union that aimed at integrating Africa’s markets in line with the objectives and principles highlighted in the Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community.
The main objective is to expand and accelerate intra-African trade and increase trade among African countries through the elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers as well as harmonisation of standards, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, custom cooperation and border procedures and other trade related regulations. The realisation of the AfCFTA objectives also requires capacity building and investments in the productive sectors, services and trade related infrastructure.
