By Albert Allotey
Accra, Sept. 7, GNA – The ChannelOne TV and Citi FM, Accra-based TV and radio stations have organised a two-day “THIS IS GHANA” exhibition 2025, to showcase Ghana’s innovative export potential.
It was an exhibition for local small and medium enterprises (SMEs), start-ups, home grown businesses, innovation and indigenous corporate bodies.
This year over160 exhibitors are participating.
The exhibition was started in 2019 aimed at supporting and creating space or platform for Ghanaian SMEs and businesses; and to introduce them to entities like the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) so they could have access to the international market.
Madam Nelly Joana Spio-Abaidoo, Head, Industrial Arts and Crafts at the GEPA at a press briefing said the event provided opportunity for what Ghana could offer to the rest of the world.
“For us we want to use this platform for project development and to introduce the companies to the opportunities that exist in the international market while scouting and looking at businesses that have potentials,” she stated.
She added, “Even if they are not potential, we are here to groom them and transition them so that they become ready for the international market.”
Madam Spio-Abaidoo said GEPA had established export training school where they introduce vendors and participants to export services to prepare them for the foreign market.
Mr Restus Numadzi, the Managing Director of Built Financial Technologies Limited and one of the sponsors stated that his company’s platform is used for invoicing, event tracking, payroll management, inventory management, and payments.
He noted that the first thing SMEs or start-ups face in Africa and for that matter Ghana is funding or capital, and that 50 per cent of businesses in Ghana lacked finances and that it was not fault of theirs.
“Some of the software are charged in dollars and are very expensive and some do not speak to the needs of a typical Ghanaian content. So, we came together some few years ago to start something like that to solve that problem for them,” he said.
Mr Numadze said, “So, as we speak right now, we have about 18,000 businesses using that platform to manage their day-to-day business portfolio,” adding that “We saw it good that ‘THIS IS GHANA’ is a platform to get to all businesses, so we came to be part.”
He said because of the feedback they had from last year’s exhibition, they had launched a report called ‘Ghana SMEs Report’ which covered, How to Start Business in Ghana, Challenges Ghana SMEs Face, and Registering Business in Ghana.
“The rest are Filing Your Taxes in Ghana, Getting Your Books Right, Hiring and Paying Employees in Ghana, Opening Your First Bank Account in Ghana, and Raising Funding and Support.
“This is a report that every SMEs will need in Ghana,” he advised.
Mr Benard Avle, GeneralManager, with Citi FM said the idea of the exhibition was that “Economic development was not just about economic policies, but about market and as a leading media house in Ghana they decided to bring people together.
“So, ‘THIS IS GHANA’ is a marketplace for many sectors because economic development requires production, market, and people to patronise things. So, basically, we brought over 160 businesses of all kinds together to come and show what value they have added to their products,” he pointed out.
He expressed the view that Ghana’s economy had been very poor because the country exports its raw materials, saying, “But now we have companies which are adding value to their products in many sectors.
“There is the need for them to be seen and heard, whether they are in the production of garments, clothing, technology or food; they need to showcase what they have hence the exhibition.”
GNA
Edited by George-Ramsey Benamba