Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, Deputy Chief of Staff for Administration at the Office of the President of Ghana, has called for strategic and well-resourced implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) protocols to ensure women engaged in informal cross-border trade fully benefit from the agreement.

She made the call during the panel session themed “From Boardrooms to Borders: Women Driving the AfCFTA Agenda” at the 2026 Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD) on Wednesday,  4th February, 2026 at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).

The session brought together women CEOs and leaders from both the public and private sectors to discuss accelerating the implementation of the AfCFTA agreement.

It highlighted the role of women in shaping Africa’s economic future through innovation, leadership, and cross-border collaboration, while exploring strategies to unlock finance for women-led enterprises and ensure the Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade delivers real opportunities.

Nana Oye noted that women account for nearly 70 percent of informal cross-border trade across the continent, making them indispensable to Africa’s trade and economic integration agenda.

Drawing from a personal experience during a visit to The Gambia in March last year, she recounted witnessing salted fish being purchased and packed into trucks for transport back to Mankessim in Ghana’s Central Region.

“How does AfCFTA provide opportunities to expand that trade? How does it create an enabling environment for payments and smooth cross-border movement?” she asked, stressing the need for policies that reflect the realities of informal traders.

Nana Oye expressed concern about persistent trade barriers, including challenges in moving goods even between neighbouring countries such as Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

She argued that such obstacles highlight the urgency for governments, particularly trade ministries, to work in synergy to make AfCFTA’s objectives achievable.

“This means that whatever we do in implementing AfCFTA and the protocols must be strategic and deliberate,” she said.

Beyond being a trade framework, Nana Oye described AfCFTA as a powerful instrument for social transformation, capable of improving lives and expanding opportunities for generations of African women.

She called for simplified border procedures, digitalised customs systems, stronger legal frameworks, enforcement mechanisms, and improved access to finance for women traders.

Highlighting Ghana’s efforts, she pointed to the proposed Women’s Development Bank, which has received budgetary allocation and is being spearheaded at the highest level of government as a vehicle to empower women economically.

Nana Oye further cautioned that without deliberate action, Africa risks repeating the same conversations year after year without real progress.

“If we are not deliberate about it, we are going to sit on this platform next year and still be talking,” she further indicated.