GEPA poised to achieve $10bn export earnings
The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) says it will generate $10 billion from non-traditional exports (NTEs) in the next four years, up from the $5 billion target set for 2015.
Advertisement
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GEPA, Mrs Gifty Kekeli Klenam, reiterated this last Wednesday in the Brong Ahafo regional capital, Sunyani, in an address read on her behalf at a stakeholder engagement on the implementation of the one-district, one-export product initiative which is part of the National Export Strategy (NES).
One of her deputies, Mr Eric Amoako Twum, who read the address, said the GEPA was poised to fully implement the project to help achieve the target within schedule.
Mrs Klenam explained that the authority would establish regional offices with district representatives who would see to the full implementation of the initiative.
The GEPA, she said, was also implementing structural reforms meant to realign its operations and enable them to put a firm handle on the NES as well as its one-district, one-export product industrialisation concept.
Brong Ahafo Region
The GEPA boss said the authority was looking forward to strengthening its presence in the Brong Ahafo Region to unearth the region’s full export potential.
Mrs Klenam explained that the region was vast and blessed with immense potential for agribusiness, services and exports.
She added that the region had been touted as the food basket of the country and challenged the stakeholders to translate that positive accolade into meaningful exports.
Conference
Municipal and district chief executives, coordinating directors, planning officers and heads of departments drawn from all the 27 districts in the region attended the forum.
It was also used to solicit their inputs into the implementation of the strategy and to guide them on how to select products or services with immense export potential from each district in the region.
National Export Strategy
The NES was crafted in 2013 to rely on the districts as the bedrock of export development activities, especially the development of agro-based products for export.
The strategy’s $5 billion target by the close of 2015 could not be achieved, as the proceeds from NTEs came to $2.52 billion at the close of that year.
Last year, earnings from NTEs settled at $2.46 billion, representing a decrease of 2.3 per cent over the previous year’s.
Processed and semi-processed exports contributed 84.72 per cent to the proceeds, agricultural products accounted for 15.07 per cent of the earnings, with the handicraft sub-division contributing 0.21 per cent, although the division grew by 22.25 per cent over the previous year.
{loadmodule mod_banners,Nativead1}
Imports, exports balance
The Deputy Regional Minister, Mr Evans Opoku-Bobie, said the promotion of export as a development aspiration was essential for the development and growth of the economy.
He said no nation was self-sufficient and, therefore, that required the products of other countries to meet the needs of its people.
“To ensure survival, every economy must maintain a heathy balance between imports and exports,” Mr Opoku-Bobie stated, adding that over-reliance on foreign products through importation without a corresponding export volume resulted in adverse trade balances, thereby weakening the local economy.
He, therefore, emphasised the need to devise strategies to boost the country’s export for enhanced foreign exchange earnings to develop the economy.
Mr Opoku-Bobie was hopeful that such an economy would create more jobs, boost domestic trade, generate income, as well as improve the total well-being of the people.