The Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana, has dismissed a media report which claimed that there was tension at the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
A report by online portal, www.GhanaNewsPage.Com on March 14, 2021 titled: “Secretary General of AfCFTA threatens to sack all Ghanaian employees”, had alleged a rift between Ghanaian officials and foreign nationals working at AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra.
But the Trade and Industry Ministry in a rejoinder dated March 16, 2021 and signed by its Chief Director, Patrick Y. Nimo, stated “emphatically and unequivocally that there is no such rift or tension” at the AfCFTA Secretariat.
According to the rejoinder, “the report is not only false and misleading but disingenuous and is designed to cause disaffection between the two groups of officials working at the Secretariat and it is also intended to jeopardize the cordial relations between the Government of Ghana and the leadership of the AfCFTA Secretariat.”
The rejoinder explained that since August 2020, when the Secretariat was officially commissioned, the Government of Ghana in consultation with the Secretary General of AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, deployed a team of experienced Ghanaian professionals and experts for a transition period as an Operational Support Team (OST) to assist the Secretary General to commence operational activities, while the formal process of recruitment is activated.
It added that OST, since its deployment, has had a harmonious working relationship with the Secretary General and his initial team made up of foreign nationals.
“It is to be understood that the OST from the onset has been intended to be a short-term transitional arrangement until permanent staff for the Secretariat are engaged,” it said.
“It is therefor erroneous to create the impression, as the report suggests, that the Secretary General is averse to working with Ghanaian nationals,” according to the rejoinder.
By Melvin Tarlue