Policy to promote Made-in-Ghana goods before Cabinet
A new policy aimed at boosting the campaign to promote Made in Ghana (MiG) goods is now before Cabinet for consideration.
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When approved, the policy will introduce a number of interventions to ensure that the procurement of goods and services is done through local manufacturers.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, who announced this at an interaction with members of the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) in Accra, said the proposals in the new policy were to ensure that the Made in Ghana (MiG) campaign would take even deeper roots going forward.
“The policy document has over 20 specific industry sectors and product lines. We want government agencies especially, since government is the biggest spender in the economy, to at least by policy or if necessary, by legislation, be compelled to procure things principally from within.
“We are expecting that when the Made-in-Ghana policy passes through Cabinet, the pharmaceutical industry, agro products and food processing companies will all benefit from the policy,” he said.
Already, the government has awarded the printing of textbooks to local printers and that, he said, would go a long way to promote what exactly the Made-in-Ghana campaign was all about.
He said, ultimately, the impact of this new legislation would result in job creation and subsequently, economic growth.
“The impact will be on your brother or sister who might need a job somewhere, because by virtue of this policy, companies will have five or 10 companies having more orders and needing more hands to work with,” he said.
Individual quota
According to Mr Spio-Garbrah, while awaiting the policy statement to come into force, Ghanaians in their own small way could contribute to growing the economy by patronising made-in-Ghana goods.
“In our own respective institutions and our homes, we can individually and collectively decide to support our economy by taking simple decisions to patronise Made-in-Ghana products,” he said.
The President of IFEJ, Mr Lloyd Evans, urged journalists to use their various mediums to help push the campaign because local companies had the capacity to produce what was needed locally.