The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) has raised an alarm over the physical safety of Ghanaian women engaged in cross-border trade, citing recent incidents involving traders in Burkina Faso as evidence that security risks are emerging as a barrier to women’s economic participation in regional markets.
GNCCI First Vice-President Dr. Emelia Asiakwa made the warning at the chamber’s International Women’s Day National Economic Empowerment Programme in Accra, held in partnership with TradeMark Africa (TMA) under the theme “Rights, Justice, Action for All Women: Investing in Women, Promoting Economic Growth.” She called for coordinated action among governments, security agencies, and trade institutions to ensure that women traders can operate in the sub-region without fear for their physical safety.
Dr. Asiakwa argued that financial and structural barriers remain the most persistent constraints on women-owned businesses, including limited access to credit, restricted market entry, and regulatory environments that were not designed with women entrepreneurs in mind. She said national policies, financial systems, and institutional frameworks must be deliberately structured to support women if gender equality is to translate from a political commitment into an economic outcome.
TradeMark Africa Director for West Africa and AfCFTA, Harriet Gayi, drew on direct fieldwork to illustrate the stakes, describing her recent engagement with women traders in Togo under the “Make Trade Work for Women in West Africa” project, which revealed the daily realities women face in pursuing cross-border livelihoods. She said gender-inclusive trade policies and improved border systems were essential to creating conditions in which women-led businesses could grow and compete.
Ms. Gayi said the full potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) would not be realised unless women and young entrepreneurs were structurally included in the trading system rather than absorbed into it on unfavourable terms.
The event forms part of broader efforts by the private sector and its partners to promote inclusive development by strengthening women’s economic participation across Ghana and the wider West African region.
