The day’s intensive training, held in Tamale, was also to enhance the MSMEs' capacity by addressing regulatory compliance issues, and promoting their goods through targeted market entry expeditions, and fairs in the African market.

It was an interactive training that prioritised practicality and clarity with participants, who had African trade potential engaging in experimental learning activities such as case studies, role-play and breakout sessions to enhance engagement.

The training was organised by the AfCFTA National Coordination Office (NCO) with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

It aligned with the National AfCFTA Policy Framework and Action Plan for boosting the country’s trade with Africa particularly focusing on Trade Policy, Enhancing Productive Capacity and Factor Market Integration.

Dr. Fareed Arthur, National Coordinator, AfCFTA NCO, speaking during the training, said it sought to enhance practical understanding of trade regulations, customs procedures, and documentation required for trading under the AfCFTA.

He said it was also to improve market readiness of participants, including branding, market research and intelligence, and establishing international business deals under the AfCFTA.

Since 2022, the UNDP and AfCFTA NCO have been empowering MSMEs to take advantage of the AfCFTA's opportunities.

Despite those efforts, a critical gap such as lack of awareness and understandtng of essential international trade elements, including export procedures, quality standards, packaging, labeling requirements, compliance, logistics management, and AfCFTA protocols and regulatlons remain untapped, hence the market readiness training.

Dr. Arthur said, So far, we've gone out with about 110 SMEs to East Africa, and they are all doing very well.

I can say 90 per cent of them were able to strike businesses either bringing in goods or taking out goods. So, there is a huge opportunity there. We know that it is a work in progress, and it will take quite some time for us to see the full benefits of it."

Madam Jemima Michael, Programme Analyst (Inclusive Entrepreneurship) at UNDP emphasised that the UNDP/NCO collaboration aimed to provide integrated support to businesses, particularly women and youth-owned MSMEs as a strategy to unlocking their productivity and creating enabling environment for them to expand their businesses beyond borders and contribute meaningfully to economic growth and development of Ghana.

Mr. Divine Kutortse, Programme Manager for Enterprise Support and Development and Trading Finance at AfCFTA NCO, urged the MSMEs to be deliberate about the export market and produce goods purposely for exports rather than considering exporting their surplus goods.

Mr. Kutortse, who is also the Schedule Officer for the NCO/UNDP Project, touched on the relevance of exports documentation, and urged the participants to take it seriously to avoid running into problems when their goods finally arrived at their export destinations.

He said," And the certificate of origin is one of the key things that we want you to do. And as I stated, the office is coming to establish a desk, an AfCFTA desk here, so that the businesses here in Tamale, or in the northern part of Ghana, can easily access this information."

Participants expressed gratitude to the AfCFTA NCO and UNDP for their support, saying it would go a long way to improve their operations to fully benefit from the AfCFTA initiative.

Similar training courses would be held in four other parts of the country.