On Wednesday 12th December 2018, the Spain-Ghana Chamber of Commerce was launched during a stakeholder and media event held at the residence of the Ambassador of Spain to Ghana, Her Excellency Alicia Rico in Accra.

The Spain–Ghana Chamber of Commerce among other things will primarily serve as a platform to promote increased economic and commercial relations between Ghana and Spain. Opened to Spanish and Ghanaian businesses, it is the first chamber of the kind to be created within the ECOWAS sub-region.

Special guests at the event were the Deputy Ghanaian Minister of Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay, the Director General of Casa Africa, Luis Padrón López and the Board Chairman of the European Business Organization, Celestino Alvarez.

In her welcome address, Ambassador Alicia Rico highlighted Spain`s priorities in its relations with Ghana - working together to promote trade, investments and opportunities, contributing to sustainable development and the creation of jobs in both countries. She further listed the crucial role of the private sector in realising the objectives of the cooperation between the two countries.

“There is no doubt that the chamber will contribute in a significant way by bringing together and representing the interests of companies that have established or are interested in establishing business and commercial relations between Spain and Ghana. This will allow for the facilitation of information sharing, networking and professional development”, she said.

She further stated that “Africa is a region with increasing specific weight in Spain`s external action and particularly in our economic and commercial relations. The truth is that Africa has a much larger dimension than what is believed in our foreign trade, representing over 16,000 million euros of exports per year and 20,000 million euros of imports. This means that our exchanges with Africa are more than what we have with the whole of Latin America or with North America”.

In spite of the exchanges, Spain`s trade and investments with sub-Saharan Africa remains very low compared to that with northern Africa. According to the Spanish Ambassador, it opens a window of endless opportunities to increase the trade volumes and investments by bringing in more Spanish companies to Ghana and setting up more synergies between Spanish and Ghanaian companies.

On his part, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay lauded the initiative and reiterated the government of Ghana’s commitment to a peaceful country with high economic growth with the goal of ensuring a more friendly business environment. He added that, in the context of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda, Ghana has the potential of becoming one of the most attractive African countries.