Ghana Export Promotion Authority
The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has launched its 50th anniversary with a call on Ghanaians to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that exist in the export sector of the country’s economy.
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay, who made the call at the media launch held in Accra on Tuesday May 7, 2017, said that the ability of the country to create wealth heavily depends on export and value addition to locally manufactured products.
“If we sell everything we make just to ourselves, we will not create enough wealth for Ghanaians. We are a nation of very smart traders. The challenge we have is that we trade everything else that somebody else makes,” he said.
The anniversary celebration is under the theme, “50 years of Facilitating Ghana’s Exports.”
Present at the launch were some past Chief Executive Officers (CEO), Board Chairman of GEPA, Sandy Osei Agyeman and GEPA CEO, Afua Asabea Asare.
Ms Asare stated that GEPA has done considerably well over the years to facilitate trade, identify and adopt products with export potential.
She said her outfit has also held trade missions to permeate the international market and also trained potential and existing exporters in the country.
These initiatives, according to her, have led to the categorisation of over 400 export products.
GEPA, she indicated, is in the process of reviewing some of its laws and other documents in order to reflect the current trends and technologies that exist in the global market.
These laws include the Ghana Export Authority Law (Act 396, 1969) and five-year National Export Strategy that is focused on helping Ghana achieve its $5.3 billion target in 2021.
The Board Chairman of GEPA, Mr Agyeman urged the media to highlight the success stories of GEPA so as to promote the export agenda of the nation.
“It kills my heart because such negative stories are not necessary. To make matters worse, most of the information they put out there is untrue and they don’t have the guts and common sense to cross-check,” he added.
Activities that have been lined up as part of the year-long celebration include exporters’ regional caravan, staff corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity, essays and project competition, Regional Exporters Forum, the launch of the Design Week and Youth in Export and National Exporters Awards and Presidential Gala.
By Issah Mohammed