Twenty-six countries sign one trade rulebook in Accra — and Ghana signs first

In Accra on Monday, Ghana's Minister for Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, put her country's name first on a brand-new United Nations treaty — then 25 more countries followed on the same day. The Accra Convention creates one shared legal rulebook for negotiable cargo documents: the paperwork that proves who owns goods while they are still moving. At sea, such documents have long let traders sell cargo mid-voyage or borrow against it. On road, rail and air — how between 80 and 90 per cent of Africa's freight moves — that option barely existed, leaving small businesses stuck waiting for payment. The UN Treaty Collection confirmed all 26 opening-day signatures. For the small and medium-sized firms Ofosu-Adjare spoke for, goods in transit may soon count as security a bank can lend against, in a continent where the trade finance gap was estimated at between $74 billion and $92 billion in 2024.

SDG 8 · Decent work and economic growth — Mechanism: policy reform