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Minister challenges GEPA to resolve export challenges
In the face of multiple hindrances that has stifled the growth of exports in the country, Carlos Ahenkorah has challenged GEPA to increase their efforts exports promotion.
Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Carlos Ahenkorah
According to him, the major challenges facing the export industry including the multiplicity of inspection by various government bodies and a ban on vegetable and fruit exports to the EU should be tackled immediately to increase exports in the country.
“As I speak the EU has banned importation of vegetables and fruits to the EU. They have come twice to assess and we have lost and they are coming again in September,” the Deputy Minister lamented and challenged the authority help resolve the issue.
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Mr Ahenkorah said the Ministry of on its part had started pushing to get the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, which was responsible for the agency checking the exports, to up their game because it was very demeaning for the country to have its exports returned.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry, he said was liaising with the Food and Agriculture Industry ministry to make sure proper checks are made on exported goods as Ghana’s history of not meeting up to international standards was a bad reputation for the nation.
In attendance at the event were senior management of GEPA and key strategic partners, seeks to initiate a consultative process on avenues of support from partners, development of an annual action plan, and redesigning of various value chains.
It also seeks to identify priorities and actions needed to enable the planning of a streamlined and cost effective service position for GEPA in the implementation of the National Export Strategy.
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Mr Ahenkorah said GEPA must be able to stamp its authority on developments within the export sector.
He also asked coordinator responsible for checking the exports to voice out their grievances and challenges so that a collective effort would be made at rectifying them.
‘One of the only ways that Ghana’s huge balance of payment deficit could be reduced is through exports’ he added.
The minister was pleased with GEPA commending them for the urgency of the meeting as it was in line with government’s policy to address the setback of the sector.
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On the National Export Strategy, Mr Ahenkorah said the Ministry was going to lead a discussion with stakeholders to see how it fits within government’s strategic plan.
He said the review would look at new developments such as the continental Free Trade area, AGOA, the Ecowas Trade Liberalisation Scheme, the Economic Partnership Agreement and the Common External Tariff and how to position GEPA to be able to tap into the benefits of these programmes.
The Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, Ms Gifty Klenam said the authority was faced with serious problems of expanding export growth in the face other international market concerns.
‘Currently, we’re not able to meet huge export orders because of a slow growth of our supply base’ he added.
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She said GEPA was adopting measures and strategic realignment to handle the challenges in the export sector.
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