Ghana Ban Importation Of Nigerian Goods

To fix economic issues Ghana has banned the importation of Nigerian goods.

Ghana however has placed a ban on some goods from being imported into the country. 

Ghana has prohibited some items from entry into its domain, following Nigeria’s footsteps that restricted forty-one items from access to foreign exchange.

Ghanaian Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah stated yesterday that Ghana and Nigeria trade are said to account for some 68 per cent of the ECOWAS region’s Gross Domestic Product.

Nigeria accounts for almost 10 per cent of Ghana’s foreign trade volume, whereas Ghana is listed as the 9th largest trade partner to Nigeria.

In spite of the difficulties, Ghana remains Nigeria’s largest trade partner and favourite investment hub in the West Africa sub-region, as Ghana imports the largest share of all Nigerian oil exports in the West African sub-region. While ‘bagged cement’ is on Nigeria’s prohibition list, Dangote Cement brings in and bags some 750,000 tonnes of cement a year for the Ghanaian market, and is expected to increase this to 1.5 million tonnes by end of this quarter.

The Chief Executive Officer of Ghanaian Association of Ghana Industries stated that there should be a clear letter written to the Nigerians complaining about this, and then also try and use some diplomatic means to quickly resolve it. “If it does not work then we must also look at countervailing measures…it could be product targeting,” he said.

“If we also make it difficult for them to export, then we would have to find common ground,” Kate Quartey-Papafio, CEO of Reroy Cables argued. Even for those who are able to export to Nigeria, you have to get different certificates for different customers and it takes a whole lot of time to get it. It makes the whole thing so cumbersome. You are exporting the same thing but you have to go and get certificates for each of the customers,” she said.

Nigeria has used an “Import Prohibition List” to refuse certain goods entry into the country, including a host of pharmaceutical products.