Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr. Yofi Grant, has urged manufacturing companies to upgrade the production of their goods and services as quality and standardized goods are very important in preparation for the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
This, he emphasized, will be significant in ensuring these businesses healthily compete with other rival African countries who have ratified for the single market agreement.
“Quality and standards are very important. In the textiles industry, for instance, you want to make sure that, you are sewing quality clothes for the market. And you are sewing a particular style that has market appeal. You can do that style in different sizes but the same quality throughout. There should not be threading and weaving all over the place and not straight.
“Those are the things that I mean every consumer wants. Everyone wants to buy clothes that are perfectly sewn. And so, we need to learn these things. When you are coming from a depressed economy, that is developing sometimes, quality is not your foremost priority, availability is. But when you move beyond availability into a bigger market, quality becomes critical”.
Additionally, Mr. Yofi Grant called on the relevant agencies to sensitize businesses on the need to ensure that goods exported are of the right standard and quality.
“You can produce whatever you want but if it is substandard, and it doesn’t meet the needs of the market or the buyer, it won’t go anywhere. So, it is not just producing that is important; education is important. The understanding of value quality and the understanding that there must be certain standards that you have to maintain is key”.
GIPC, had prior to this, called on businesses to build capacity for the ensuing African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Following calls by the business community for more to be done to empower the private sector to become a hub for economic growth in Africa through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Mr. Yofi Grant, pledged the Center’s support to local businesses via assistance to harness the opportunities that come with trading under the AfCFTA.
In light of this, he expressed his outfit’s readiness to create a more advantageous business environment for local businesses to thrive under the AfCFTA by being value driven.
According to him, value addition will remain paramount for business and not just the export of raw material and resources. For this to materialize, he stated that investments, in not just the businesses but also the factories in which the business owners operate with, should be highly prioritized.
Additionally, he noted that, the Center will also initiate structured help to these businesses via incentive and investor support. Trainings in a “structured” manner will also be incorporated to help the indigenous businesses scale up.
Citing examples on how it can be achieved, Mr. Yofi Grant said he has been in discussion with the diaspora textile industry and some European partners to establish factories in the country.
