Ghanaian entrepreneur Kwame Sowu-Jr isn’t mourning the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)’s expiration, he’s lamenting that Ghana squandered it long before it died.
Vietnam exported $97.07 billion to the United States in 2023 alone, while Ghana’s total exports to the US hover around $1.2 billion annually across all product categories. The comparison stings because both countries started from similar economic positions in the 1990s, yet Vietnam leveraged trade access to build manufacturing powerhouses while Ghana remained stuck exporting raw cocoa and unprocessed gold.
“When the United States opened its doors through AGOA, Ghana stood at the threshold of a historic economic transformation,” Sowu-Jr wrote in a commentary reflecting on the program’s end. “The act provided duty-free access to the world’s largest consumer market, which was Ghana’s signed cheque to build industries, create jobs, and raise living standards. Two decades on, that cheque remains uncashed.”
His frustration reflects broader disappointment among Ghana’s business community. AGOA, launched in 2000, offered sub-Saharan African countries tariff-free entry to US markets for thousands of products. The deal required no payment, no complex negotiations—just the ability to meet basic labor and governance standards while building export capacity.
Countries across Asia and Latin America demonstrated what’s possible with such access. US imports from Vietnam reached $142.48 billion in 2024. Mexico, under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its successor, transformed border towns into industrial centers processing billions in manufactured goods. Even the Dominican Republic, with a fraction of Ghana’s population and resources, consistently ships billions worth of apparel and agricultural products to American consumers.
Ghana, by contrast, watched the opportunity expire with minimal diversification beyond traditional commodities. “We folded the opportunity neatly, tucked it away, and went back to complaining about poverty, foreign aid, and debt relief,” Sowu-Jr wrote.
He recalls attending AGOA’s launch events in the early 2000s filled with optimism. “The event felt like a gathering of promise and a signal that Ghana was ready to seize the future. I truly believed we were on the edge of something transformative.”
That transformation never materialized. Ghana’s AGOA exports remained dominated by cocoa products, shea butter, and handicrafts—valuable exports, but hardly the industrial transformation envisioned. The country never developed the textile manufacturing that turned Bangladesh into a global apparel hub, never built the electronics assembly operations that fueled Vietnam’s growth, never established the food processing industries that could have added value to Ghana’s abundant agricultural output.
“The tragedy is that this is not just about lost trade figures,” Sowu-Jr noted. “It is about lost jobs, lost factories, lost urban renewal, and lost pride.”
The entrepreneur’s critique raises uncomfortable questions about why Ghana failed where others succeeded. Some point to inadequate infrastructure—unreliable electricity, poor roads, congested ports—that made manufacturing uncompetitive. Others cite bureaucratic obstacles, corruption, and policy inconsistency that deterred investors. Still others blame lack of capital, technical expertise, and marketing know-how needed to break into sophisticated supply chains.
All these factors played roles, but Sowu-Jr’s assessment suggests something deeper: a failure of ambition and execution at the highest levels. “Every container that left Vietnam’s ports was a wage for a worker, rent for a family, tax for a government, and growth for a nation,” he wrote. “Every container that did not leave Tema under AGOA was Ghana turning its back on wealth creation.”
The comparison with Vietnam particularly stings because Ghana actually enjoyed advantages Vietnam lacked. Ghana had stronger institutions, better English proficiency, closer cultural ties to the US market, and more developed financial systems. Yet Vietnam, emerging from decades of war and communist central planning, surged past Ghana in manufacturing sophistication and export diversification.
“We must admit the truth. We squandered an extraordinary moment,” Sowu-Jr wrote. “The world’s biggest economy offered us a golden highway, and we chose the dirt road.”
With talks about possibly renewing AGOA for one year, Sowu-Jr’s commentary serves as warning rather than obituary. If the program does get extended—even temporarily—Ghana faces a choice about whether to approach it differently or repeat past failures.
The entrepreneur’s message: opportunities in global trade expire if ignored. Ghana can either learn from two decades of missed chances and finally execute on export diversification, or it can file another golden opportunity “neatly in drawers” while competitors capture markets Ghana could have claimed.
Whether Ghana’s current economic team has absorbed those lessons, and whether they have the political backing to execute differently, will determine if any AGOA extension produces different results or just extends Ghana’s disappointment for another year.
Source: newsghana.com.gh
