The Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, has said the late former President, Jerry John Rawlings, played an integral role in helping Ghana win the bid to host African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat in Accra.

Although some powerful countries within the African Union applied to host the secretariat, Ghana won it.

The trade minister who spoke to GhanaWeb said Ghana will forever be indebted to Jerry John Rawlings for his role in helping Ghana to secure the AfCFTA Secretariat.

“Speaking as Minister for Trade and Industry, his role in helping Ghana to secure the bid to host the AfCFTA secretariat in the country will forever be remembered. May the good Lord receive his soul.”

AfCFTA is set to begin in January 2021, with a focus first on easing trade for small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for 90 percent of jobs created on the continent.

The AfCFTA agreement seeks to create a single African market of over a billion consumers with a total GDP of over $3 trillion; a figure that will make Africa the largest free trade area in the world.

There are currently 54 signatories to the trade agreement.

Ghana’s longest-serving head of state, Jerry John Rawlings, died on November 12, 2020.

Mr Rawlings died on Thursday at about 10:10 am aged 73 at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where he was receiving treatment after a short illness.