GEPA sharpens skills of women for access to international market

Accra, Dec. 18, GNA – The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has teamed up with the Canadian trade agency, TFO Canada, to sharpen the skills of women in agribusiness and textiles to help them trade in the international market with ease.

Participants for the capacity building include seasoned exporters, women who do indirect exports and those who are yet to enter the exports market.

Mr Albert Kassim Diawura, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Human Resource and Administration at the GEPA said the training programme was part of GEPA’s efforts to groom exporters for easy access to external markets and ultimately to shore up exports.

“Ghana is currently doing about US$2.8billion of non-traditional exports and we need to up our game because of our NEDS target of about US$25.3billion,” he said.

He said the training was an eye-opener for some of them to acquire the relevant skills for international trade and this could not be done without a capacity building.

Mr Diawura said international trade, unlike the local market with fewer restrictions, comes with a lot of demands, including product certifications, the legal side of a trade and exports documentation and it was important to keep exporters abreast with what pertained to trade in other parts of the world so that they could produce to meet those demands.

“We realized that we have a lot of women who are doing well in the export trade business and it is important to build their capacity to enable them to overcome the challenges in the international trade arena.
With this training, we are sharpening their skills to help them trade in the international market with ease.”

Similar pieces of training will be held in three other locations across the country, namely Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale with about 150 women traders set to benefit from the programme.

Head of Training at GEPA, Augustina Serwaa Dankwa, said the training was to encourage the women to collaborate to take advantage of the export markets, including the opportunities in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

“We are hoping to see partnerships between women traders in the textiles and agribusiness sectors. They will also learn about exports documentation and other basic information that will prepare them adequately for exports,” she indicated.

GNA