President John Dramani Mahama says he will campaign for Caribbean countries to join the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) when Ghana assumes the chairmanship of the African Union (AU) next year.
Mr Mahama said extending the agreement across the Atlantic would give businesses in Africa and the Caribbean access to duty-free and tariff-free trade, strengthening commercial ties between the two regions.
The Ghanaian president made the announcement alongside Jamaican Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness at a joint media briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kingston on Monday, 3 August 2026. He was speaking during a four-day state visit to Jamaica.
“One of the things that I would champion when I become AU chair next year is to expand the remit of the African Continental Free Trade Area to include the Caribbean,” he said.
AfCFTA currently enables African countries to trade goods with one another without paying import duties or tariffs. Mr Mahama said the arrangement had created a single market serving about 1.4 billion people, with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of nearly US$3 trillion.
He argued that including Caribbean nations would open up fresh opportunities for companies on both sides of the Atlantic and help build closer economic relations between Africa and the Caribbean.
The president explained that AfCFTA operates through a system of harmonised standards. Under that system, national standards authorities certify goods that meet agreed requirements, after which the approved products are placed on a register available to producers and buyers throughout the trading area.
Electrical cables, transformers, iron and steel goods, processed food and pharmaceuticals were among the products Mr Mahama identified as already eligible for duty-free trade under the agreement.
He also said Africa was working on a payment platform designed to allow countries to settle trade transactions in their own currencies rather than relying on a third currency.
According to Mr Mahama, the system would make cross-border commerce more straightforward and lower the cost of doing business across the continent once it became operational.
However, he acknowledged that expanding trade between Africa and the Caribbean would not happen immediately and would require sustained work and investment.
“We don’t kid ourselves that you snap your finger and suddenly trade volumes will go up. We need to work at it,” he said.
Mr Mahama added that improved transport connections and stronger infrastructure linking Africa and the Caribbean would be essential if the proposed expansion of AfCFTA were to deliver its full potential.
Ghana is due to take on the AU chairmanship next year, providing Mr Mahama with an opportunity to promote the proposal at continental level. His plan would seek to extend an agreement designed to create a wider African market to Caribbean countries, with the stated aim of increasing trade and deepening economic cooperation between the two regions.
