The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Dr. Afua Asabea Asare has indicated that her outfit is not reviewing any target for the year 2020 and as such conscious efforts are being carried out to achieve the set target in export revenue.
In an interview, she revealed that, in spite of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on trading activities both locally and on the international front, GEPA is sticking to the initial Non Traditional Export (NTE) revenue target.
Quite significantly, the average annual revenue growth rate of Non Traditional Export being targeted over the decade has been pegged at 16.8 percent.
“We don’t expect the value 2020 NTE earnings to go up, but things are in place to meet the time frame target that we have set”.
In fact, the Authority has already set value target within a particular time frame, which is, achieving strategic growth in NTE revenue to at least US$10 billion per annum by 2028, being specified in the new National Export Development Strategy.
The objective of the strategy is to achieve not less than US$5 billion in NTE exports in each of the next three years and to realize this, stakeholders are targeting 20 percent year on year export growth.
However, some industry players believe that with the advent of the Corona virus pandemic that has had severe impact on global economy, should the pandemic continue unabated, it is likely that such target might be missed. Already, small and medium sized enterprises are known to be direly affected by the virus.
Over the years, GEPA, has intervened in various sectors under the NTEs basket through assisting exporters with technical support, seedlings among others aimed at enabling farmers to increase their yields with the most recent intervention being in the coconut and vegetable sectors. The cashew sector, pineapple and yam have also benefited from similar interventions recently.
GEPA tags with other stakeholders to give agribusiness a boost
Meanwhile, the Ghana Export Promotions Authority (GEPA) in conjunction with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), as well as Italian partners AICS and Macfrut, successfully organized the first phase of ITA’s e-Lab Innova programme for a number of players in the agribusiness industry in Ghana.
Agriculture has over the years been the driving force behind Ghana’s economic growth. With the country’s shift in focus from aid to trade to drive its development agenda, a robust agribusiness sector will be pivotal in powering this change and giving an effective meaning to the new mantra of “trade, not aid”.
This is why the Italian Trade Agency’s (ITA) e-Lab Innova program, a platform to facilitate knowledge transfer and partnership creation between Italian and Ghanaian agribusiness companies, is critical.
Italy has been a powerhouse of agribusiness over the years and the country’s rich trove of knowledge in the sector, gained through years of development, is a gold mine for all countries seeking to modernize its agricultural sector for effective economic growth.
Under the leadership of Dr Alessandro Gerbino (the Country Director of ITA) and supported by Emmanuel Decker (the Trade Analyst) e-Lab Innova among other things, sought to help build the technical and managerial skills of Ghanaian agribusiness companies with a view to helping them access the huge European Union markets; foster business partnerships with Italian companies; and improve the Ghanaian value chain and local industry development and employment.
E-Lab Innova is also aimed at promoting technology transfer and innovation on the model of Italian agribusiness districts and foster opportunities for technical industrial partnerships with Italian companies.
The training took participants through a number of key topical areas needed in growing their businesses whilst availing to them importing knowledge resources to help them explore new opportunities.
Led by Enrico Turoni, Umberto Trulli and Roberta D’Arcangelo and coordinated by the ITA Accra office, participants were taken through such topics as Quality Management for International Agricultural Trade, International Trends in Fruit and Vegetables, Technology for Agri-food Companies and Improving Product Quality and Tips to Generating Leads in Sales.
