Ghana is a reliable gateway for international investment into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), President John Dramani Mahama has stated, and expressed the need for stronger South-South cooperation with Singapore in a fragmented world.\
Addressing a gathering of ministers, trade officials and corporate leaders at the 8th Africa-Singapore Business Forum yesterday, President Mahama declared Africa as fundamentally “investable” and called for deeper partnerships to harness the potential of the world’s two youngest and fastest-urbanising regions.
The forum was President Mahama’s first official engagement at the start of his three-day state visit to the Southeast Asian nation.
With the global economy facing fragmentation, President Mahama argued that Africa and Asia complemented each other by their respective resources, markets and expertise, and must become “champions of open markets, trusted rules and practical partnerships that deliver jobs, technology transfer and shared prosperity.”
He, however, cautioned that the “death knell of multilateralism is sounding,” necessitating new alliances, especially amid tight global financial conditions.
Citing compelling fundamentals, the President outlined Africa’s immense potential, anchored by a young, digitally connected population of 1.4 billion people, and a single market worth $3.4 trillion under the AfCFTA, for which Ghana hosts the Secretariat.
“Africa is investable, and Ghana is your reliable gateway to the continent,” President Mahama said in a presentation which was met with keen interest from the business forum, setting the stage for deeper economic engagements between the two countries.
The President stated that trade between Africa and Singapore had grown significantly, climbing nearly 50 per cent between 2020 and 2024, to approximately $14 billion.
Specifically, trade between Ghana and Singapore reached over $215 million in 2024, with 69 Singaporean companies registered in Ghana, representing cumulative investments exceeding $2 billion.
“Ghana is, therefore, a trusted entry point to scale across the continent,” President Mahama said, highlighting the country’s access to over 400 million consumers through the ECOWAS bloc.
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