The Chief Executive Officer of Moon Organics, Rosina Akpey, has described the low patronage of Made in Ghana products as nonchalance on the part of Ghanaians to value anything “Made in Ghana”.
Speaking to The Vaultz News, Ms. Akpey noted that, people do not necessarily have any substantial reason for preferring foreign products as they “probably just fancy that it’s from ‘America’ or somewhere.
“In my honest opinion, most people do not value anything made in Ghana. It’s only in recent times I’ve seen a lot of programs being organized to actively engage the made in Ghana product manufacturers, hence, sensitizing the public and giving these producers the needed exposure for people to appreciate their works”.
Ms. Akpey further asserted that, she has “never heard anyone give me a reason for why they’d not purchase a made in Ghana product”.
Commenting on the progress made by government, particularly efforts on the part of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, she emphatically stated, government can do more especially when it comes to guidelines for registering businesses, FDA approvals and generally meeting the standards of regulatory bodies,
“Even though these services exist, 90% of business owners have no idea what it takes to go through the required processes regarding business registration. The FDA for instance should be sensitizing business owners once in a while because most people think the process is rigorous and have various reservations about it”.
Calling for investments in” young entrepreneurs” from government and other stakeholders, she deemed it a challenge “to match foreign-made products boot to boot, by means of excellent branding, perfect finishing etc”.
Meanwhile, major supermarkets in Ghana in recent times have increased the prominence they give to Ghanaian products on their shelves.
A survey conducted by international advisory firm, Konfidants in 2019 on Made in Ghana goods sold in Ghana’s leading supermarkets showed that only 18% of goods in 23 product categories surveyed were locally produced.
The findings from the research confirm a common observation: There are not enough Made-In-Ghana goods in the stores. A total number of 7462 brands (from the 23 product categories) were counted across all 8 supermarkets included in the survey. Out of this number, 6, 108 (82%) were foreign brands, with only 1354 (18%) being MIG brands.
The findings however reveal interesting insights into how MIG goods perform across the 23 categories. The best performing category of MIG goods is Eggs (with 91% of all eggs on sale produced in Ghana), followed by Bottled water (with 56% MIG). The worst performing categories are jointly Rice and Cosmetics/beauty products with 6% each of products sold in this category being MIG. Other poor performers are Confectionaries & biscuits, Beverage powder & Tea and Sanitary Products – categories which all recorded less than 10% MIG across the supermarkets.
In the same year, the Ministry of Trade and Industry made an appeal to supermarkets to dedicate stands and shelves to products solely made in Ghana or to make sure they are openly displayed for shoppers to easily see.
