Mr Dentu (middle) presents items to Mr Toddar (right) of Tetteh Quarshie Handicraft Association
DEPUTY CHIEF Executive Officer in Charge of Finance at Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Samuel Dentu, has encouraged Ghanaian handicraft exporters, whose businesses have been negatively affected by the outbreak of Covid-19 in overseas markets, to explore new markets by leveraging on social technologies.
Despite such technologies having a wider reach to potential customers, he encouraged exporters to target markets within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) since those markets operate with less trade barriers and low operational cost.
“The virus has forced businesses to look for new ways to trade and we now have a market which is the AfCFTA. Usually you meet people who come here to trade but then due to the virus, we will encourage you to use social media,” he said.
He gave the advice at a presentation ceremony on Thursday at the Accra Art centre when the authority reached out to three art and craft associations with variety of personal safety items to help the handicraft export communities fight against the Covid-19 disease.
The associations, which were from Aburi, Tetteh Quarshie and Accra Art centres jointly received items that included 3,000 bottles of alcohol based hand sanitizers, 3,300 face masks as well as 50 Veronica buckets alongside water basins, liquid soap, disposable tissues and trash bins.
Mr Dentu urged artisans to religiously adhere to the World Health Organization (WHO) approved safety protocols that had been outlined by the government.
He further talked about some initiatives that had been lined up under a yet to be launched National Export Strategy, which among other things sought to build the capacity of artisans to produce functional products that would enable wares meet global demand.
Vice-President of the National Association of Handicraft Exporters (NAHE), Fulera Seidu, on her part, expressed gratitude to GEPA for the noble gesture of helping protect the lives of artisans, who had immensely contributed a growth rate of 23.65 per cent in 2018 in the handicraft sector of non-traditional export.
Chairman of Global Handicraft Association at Tetteh Quarshie, Frank Toddar, has also appealed to government to intervene in order to prevent the closure of the art centre, which has been functional over the past 30 years.
By Issah Mohammed