Prospects for wood products trade under the new partnership for Africa’s development

Abstract

This paper evaluates the prospects for the development of inter-and intra-regional wood products trade in the countries of Sub-Sahara Africa using Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon as case study. A total of 517 wood processing firms comprising 121 in Ghana, 258 in Nigeria and 138 in Cameroon were surveyed through the use of structured questionnaire and physical observation of production site to assess the appropriateness of existing technologies, capacity-building needed for more efficient industrial processing vis-à-vis the technology, environmental and market situations. Result shows that trade among nations in the sub-Sahara region can be strenghtened with the adoption of common policy to secure better deals for the wood products export from this region to markets outside the region. Sub-regional trade arrangement also has a huge potential for creating employment, income and wealth for the populations and states concerned. There is need to direct resources towards the most productive ends; need to conserve foreign exchange through increased diversification of exportable products and domestic production of value added products targetted towards foreign exchange conservation and substitution.