Regional News of Monday, 24 October 2022

Source: Albert-Gooddays Kuzor

Take advantage of PAPSS - GEPA to producers, exporters

Mr. Chris Amponsah Sackey, Volta and Oti Regional Director, GEPA Mr. Chris Amponsah Sackey, Volta and Oti Regional Director, GEPA

Volta and Oti Regional Director of Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) Chris Amponsah Sackey has urged producers and exporters to take advantage of Pan-Africa Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS). PAPSS is an electronic transaction platform for business society in Africa Continent. It is a centralized payment and settlement system for intra-African trade in goods and services and it allows companies in Africa to pay for intra-African trade transactions in their local currency. According to Mr. Amponsah, the platform will "help us avoid chasing foreign currencies to use them for foreign transactions so is a payment platform that is very very good, is going to help deal with some of these challenges that we face as a continent". "My advice to exporters is that they should take advantage of some of these systems and platforms that are put in place to help ease the challenges they face when they do export business," he said. He advised traders under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to make use of it because the AfCFTA secretariat has adopted it. He added that PAPSS will help reduce or eliminate fraudulent activities. Mr. Amponsah mentioned this during a one-day capacity enhancement workshop for stakeholders from Akatsi South and North and Ketu South districts of the Volta region on the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS), held in Dzodze on Monday, October 24, 2022. Stakeholders including MMDCEs of the districts at the workshop were taken through the current status and way forward on AfCFTA, the Basic internal management system towards professionalization of SMEs and NTEs, among other export-related topics and policies in the country.