51 Ghanaian exporters to participate in Lagos Fair
About 51 export-oriented companies from the country are in Nigeria to participate in this year’s Lagos Fair.
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The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) is facilitating the participation of the companies in the 10-day fair, which is slated from November 1, to November 10.
The Director of Internal Audit at the GEPA, Mr Stephen Normeshie, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic yesterday.
He added that the participating companies were drawn from food and beverage, handicraft and garments, medicinal and the manufacturing sectors, among others.
The country is an ardent participant at the Lagos Fair, and Mr Normeshie explained that the experiences and expertise gathered over the years informed the selection of the various companies.
“We have a lot of experiences on what the Nigerian market needs and that informed the selection,” he said.
The GEPA, which is the export promotion arm of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, is hoping to use the fair to cement the country’s export potentials in Nigeria, a country of about 250 million people.
“You know we want to develop the ECOWAS market and with Nigeria’s size, if we are able to penetrate it properly, then it will go a long way to achieve that aim,” Mr Normeshie said.
The ECOWAS sub-region, which is home to some 25 countries, is now competing with the EU market for the country’s exports.
Data from the GEPA showed that as of 2012, export revenues from the sub-region was about US$1.42 million behind the US$7.48 million that was raked in from exports to the EU.
The EU’s contributions for 2012 translated to about 34.1 per cent of total export earnings for that year, while that of the West African sub-region’s contributions, which was about US$6.1 million, accounted for about 31.7 per cent for the period’s total, the data further showed.
The GEPA is now hoping to entrench its position in the sub-region in the next few years.
The Graphic Group has a correspondent at the fair who will feed the public with live reports on its brands, including the Graphic Online.
By Maxwell Adombila Akalaare/Daily Graphic/Ghana
