Trade Ministry to Address Challenges Facing Cross Border Women Traders

The Chairperson of the Gender Sub-Committee on Trade (GSCT) un­der the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), Ms Naah Ayitteh Densua, has assured Cross Border Women Traders (CBWT) in the country that efforts are being made to address the challenges confronting them in carrying out their business activities along Ghana’s borders.

Ms Densua said issues such as security problems at the borders, lack of easy access to financial support, lack of infrastructure, in­cluding markets and health facilities at the borders remained as some of the problems facing CBWT in the country.

Speaking at the maiden annual general meeting (AGM) of Cross Border Women Traders Association of Ghana (CBWTAG) under the theme: ‘Unleashing the Power of Cross Border Women Traders: Innovation, Security, Compliance, Resilience and Sustainability,’ at Af­lao in the Volta Region, Ms Densua emphasized the inmense contributions of women to the economic growth of the country which required that they be supported to carry out their businesses and trades effectively.

She said the CBWTAG had com­plained about the personnel of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) of harassment in the pursuit of their lawful activities, saying it was import­ant for security agencies such as the Customs Division of GRA and the GIS to regularly educate CBWT on matters regarding security at the various borders.

Ms Densua appealed to security agencies at the borders to intro­duce modern communication methods in pictorial form, and placed at vantage areas at the borders which would easily be un­derstood by the women traders.

According to her, majority of CBWT could not read and pictorial form of communication would prevent the security personnel from communicating directly to individual women traders.

She announced that as part of efforts to promote the Afri­can Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), a digitalised payment system would soon be introduced to help traders, particularly CBWT to pay for their goods in any coun­try they found themselves within the sub-region without difficulties.

The Principal Operations Officer of the Ghana Shippers Council (GSC), Mrs Adelaide Nyame­kye-Addo, commended Trade Mark Africa, an international non-gov­ernmental organization, for sup­porting CBWTAG to organise it’s first general meeting.

She lauded CBWTAG for the formation of the Association, which would help the traders to be easily identified.

The National President of CB­WTAG, Ms Lucky Rose Honodzi, stated that women played crucial roles in the development of the country, as they tried to improve on the living standard of their families, hence the need to provide them with the necessary support and a levelled playing field to thrive.

Additionally, she noted that it was important for traders, partic­ularly women traders to adhere to security measures at the various borders because security personnel were there in their interest.

The members of the CBWTAG during the meeting said one of the problems confronting them was extortion of money from them by the security agencies as they plied their trades across the borders, and appealed to the government to help them bring extortion at the borders to an end in order to give meaning to ACFTA.

Mr Oscar Norvihoho Akaba, national coordinator for CBWTAG expressed gratitude to the women attendees, Trade Mark Africa, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the security agencies for the collaborative efforts towards a successful AGM, further appealing for continued collaboration to carry out the association’s future programs.

By Leo Nelson || Ghananewsonline.com.gh