A SPECIAL-PURPOSE trade show to help promote businesses and diversify the local economy of Obuasi has begun with 200 samples of Ghanaian goods and local businesses on board.
The trade show dubbed: “Obuasi Donkomi”, will remain in Obuasi for five days, during which time the Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Standard Authority, Social Security and National Insurance Trust, banks, 100 small-scale businesses will be participating.
Over 2,000 members of the public are expected to visit the show.
The trade fair sponsored by AngloGold Ashanti will continue till 21st December, 2019.
Put together by AGA in collaboration with the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI), the trade show is intended to promote trading and businesses as part of AGA’s social management plan to make Obuasi independent of the mine.
Senior Manager in charge of Sustainability, Emmanuel Baidoo said at the opening of the exhibition that it is the intention of AGA to help develop and grow business linkages for residents of Obuasi not to depend solely on the mine.
“We have seen it before. When the mine went on its knees the whole Obuasi crumbled because the mine was the lifeline for the city. Management of the company does not want this to happen again. It doesn’t want to create dependency that it created before, and as a result developed this social management plan to diversify the economy of Obuasi,” he stated.
He explained that AGA now wants to be the catalyst for development, and not the revolving door so as to whine the city from the mine, hence, the trade promotion programme.
“This is the second of such trade show intended to create a market place for small-scale businesses to sell and promote their goods, while linking them up to institutions that regulate businesses and industries,” Mr Baidoo said.
Obuasi East District Coordinating Director, Emmanuel Ntosu said diversifying the local economy of Obuasi through trade promotion could not have come at a better time than now.
It is a good subject that bears relevance not only on traders, but also the entire Obuasi, asserting that diversification of an economy helps support multiple businesses within and outside sectors.
“Diversifying an economy helps grow a sustainable circle of economic activities in which businesses continue to feed one another and grow larger as economy expands,” he noted.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Obuasi