By Alex Baah Boadi
Sefwi-Wiawso (WN/R), Oct. 21, GNA – The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has trained entrepreneurs, producers, artisans, and farmers in the Western North Region on value addition to their products and how to seek support from government and stakeholders to expand and export.
The capacity enhancement workshop formed part of the implementation of the 10-year National Export Development Strategy (NEDS) that provided a clear vision of the desired evolution of Ghana’s non-traditional export sector.
Speaking at the workshop at Sefwi Wiawso, Mr. Alexander Dadzawa, Projects Director of GEPA explained that the 10-year strategic plan provided a roadmap for attaining the vision and consensus of how best to approach industrial export development that was inclusive and beneficial to Ghanaians.
He said the implementation of the NEDS would increase the contribution of Non- traditional Export to GDP growth with significant increase in per capita income and ultimately contribute to achieving substantial increases in manufactured goods and services to meet the revenue target of at least $25.3billion by the 10th year of NEDS in 2029.
Mr Dadzawa added that at the end of the programme, every district within the Western North Region would have the opportunity to select one product that would receive support in its value chain through development and promotion to gain international market access.
“This means that DCEs, agriculture directors and the economic planning officers together with the business community in the various districts will select one product as against the others depending on the resources or product dominating in a particular district”, he said while calling on all to rally and support the initiative as the Region was abound with a lot of resources.
Mr. Louis Owusu Agyapong, Municipal Chief Executive for Wiawso lauded the GEPA for the initiative to come down to the people which he believed would enrich and well position the various districts to develop strong local economy.
For his part, Mr. Godfred Kwabena Agyei Asante, District Chief Executive for Juaboso called for more investments in the region especially among the youth to compete favourably with their peers in other regions.
Some of the participants in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) expressed gratitude to the GEPA for the engagement and explained that the workshop had exposed them to innovative ways of adding value to their products and called on the government to support them to produce more for export.
GNA
JP/GRB
Oct 21, 2022.