Ghana receives more trade aid than Nigeria in eight years – Report
Ghana is said to have received more Aid for Trade (AfT) than Nigeria in the ECOWAS sub-region between the period of 2002 and 2009, according to a new report prepared by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
Aid for Trade is part of the official development assistance to developing countries and it is help many of the poorest countries that struggle to benefit from market access opportunities due to their inability to produce or export efficiently.
The report, titled, “Global Review of Aid for Trade 2011 – A snapshot of Aid for Trade on the ground in Africa,” says one-third of the countries in the ECOWAS region thus Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal shared, on average, 68.7% of the regional Aid for Trade commitments during the period 2002-09 with an increasing trend from roughly 65% during the baseline period to 72% during the period 2006-09.
Ghana received, on average, roughly $450 million per annum followed by Nigeria which had $430 million and Mali $360 million over the period 2002-09, noted the report released on July 19, 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland at the Third Aid for Trade Global Review organised by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
“Although Nigeria, one of the most populous economies in Africa, accounts for 52.7% of total ECOWAS population, its sub-regional Aid for Trade share was just 16.3%, while Ghana with 8.2% of total population in the sub-region accounted for 17.7% of ECOWAS Aid for Trade during the period 2002-09,” said the report.
According to the report, Ghana is among the top 10 recipients of AfT commitments to Africa during both the 2002-05 baseline period and the period 2006-09 considering the variations among African countries in Af T to Africa in terms of volume, per capita, ratio of disbursements to commitments as well as the ratio of AfT in the total ODA flows.
Most of the trade aid for Ghana, the report says were geared to the private sector in general in order to drive competition and growth in the sector.
“Ghana reported on its private sector development strategy, with a strong focus on reforms in the macroeconomic, financial, business registration, infrastructure and public and justice sectors, as well as land and property rights reforms. These reforms were geared to improve the business environment and ease of doing business in addition to enhancing services for the private sector,” said the AfT report.
The country enjoyed much of the aid from multilateral donors, such as the World Bank, Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA), UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) among others, it indicated.
“Since the AfT Initiative was launched in the Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting in 2005, Africa has received technical and financial assistance for trade-related activities…AfT funding has been kept and priority areas and categories identified by beneficiaries are being targeted,” said Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the ECA.
By Ekow Quandzie