Ghanaian Fashionpreneur and Founder of mSimps, Mabel Simpson, has added her voice to the AfCFTA deal in Africa. She recently announced to the BBC saying, “This [AfCFTA] means we are going to be able to produce in numbers and more people are going to be able to afford our products and we are going to be able to be more competitive in Africa.”

According to her, it could potentially make a big difference to people trying to export goods from one African country to another.

Mabel Simpson is a creative fashion entrepreneur in Accra, Ghana, who makes items with African prints such as handmade laptop bags, hand bags and pillows. Most of the raw materials she uses are imported and she says that taxes on them make the final products too expensive to sell elsewhere on the continent.

Her biggest export markets are currently the United States and the UK, as factors such as import taxes and other costs make goods too expensive to sell elsewhere in Africa. 

“If I need to ship an item to the US, if I ship an item that weighs one kilo, it’s going to be $25 but if I need to ship the same item to Uganda, it’s going to be $60. So, which is cheaper? The USA.” 

If she was able to sell her goods profitably in Uganda, and other African countries, she says she would, potentially creating more jobs for her employees in Ghana, and those selling her products elsewhere.

She also says an African free trade area could make her products cheaper because she currently pays taxes on those goods she imports.