AGOA Deadline, AfCFTA Gateway: Ghana’s Two-Clock Trade Strategy

Dorh tells US importers to use remaining AGOA years while Accra sells continental access

Ghana is pursuing a two-clock trade strategy in the United States: maximise the remaining years of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) while simultaneously marketing itself as the gateway to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

At the Africa America Trade & Investment Summit 2026 in Cincinnati, GEXIM Governing Board Chairman Dr Joseph Nyarkotei Dorh reminded American importers that AGOA has been reauthorised through December 2028. Eligible Ghanaian products enter the US market duty-free across more than 1,800 tariff lines.

“Two years is not long, and we intend to use every month of it,” Dr Dorh said.

But the larger prize, he argued, is continental. Accra hosts the Secretariat of the AfCFTA a market of about 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of over $3.4 trillion. “An American firm that partners in Ghana is not entering one country. It is entering Africa,” he said.

The speech underlined the urgency of the AGOA window. With no guarantee of another extension, Ghanaian exporters and their US buyers face a narrow timeline to build supply chains, meet standards and lock in orders. GEXIM’s expanded portfolio nearly $300 million by end-2025 is designed to help Ghanaian firms scale up before that window closes.

Dr Dorh also pointed to the government’s 24-Hour Economy programme, which aims to let firms run second and third shifts, raise output and create jobs. Capacity, he suggested, is the missing link between preferential access and actual exports.

For US importers, the message was clear: use AGOA now, but think beyond 2028. For Ghana, the challenge is to convert tariff preferences into durable industrial capacity before the clock runs out.