President John Dramani Mahama has unveiled an ambitious vision to triple Ghana’s non-traditional export revenues to $10 billion annually by 2030, placing strategic export development and infrastructure modernisation at the heart of his administration’s economic transformation agenda.
Central to this effort is the newly launched Accelerated Export Development Committee (AEDC), an 18-member high-level body tasked with coordinating export-led growth initiatives. At the committee’s inauguration on May 5, 2025, President Mahama positioned the AEDC as a bold instrument of policy alignment and accountability meant to shift Ghana from its heavy reliance on raw material exports.
“This committee represents a major step toward rethinking our economic fundamentals. We must move away from simply exporting raw cocoa and gold, and start building value chains that can generate real wealth for our people,” Mahama asserted.
Under the umbrella of the Accelerated Export Development Programme (AEDP) and the National Export Development Strategy, the AEDC will spearhead a coordinated national push to diversify exports, add value to existing raw commodities, and tap into emerging global markets.
But Mahama’s vision goes beyond policy documents.
In a strong push for competitiveness, he announced a slate of infrastructure upgrades aimed at fixing longstanding logistical bottlenecks that have stifled Ghana’s export potential. These include the modernisation of seaports, revival of the Volta Lake Transport Company, development of the Mpakadan Port, operationalisation of the Bankra Inland Port, and expansion of cold storage networks to support agriculture and fisheries.
“Exporters are losing millions because of inefficient ports and inadequate transport options. We are going to change that,” Mahama promised, noting that Ghana currently suffers from some of the highest logistics costs in West Africa, and slow export clearance processes.
This dual-track strategy—policy coordination and logistics modernisation—is expected to lay the foundation for Ghana’s emergence as a competitive export hub, especially in processed goods, services, and agri-based value chains.
As Ghana stares down global economic uncertainties, Mahama’s $10 billion export target is as much about resilience as it is about growth. With the AEDC now operational, the question remains: can Ghana turn this vision into a transformative national export breakthrough?
