Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Gideon Quarcoo, has called for higher levels of value-addition to the country’s traditional and non-traditional exports through enhanced investments in agro-processing and other productive sectors.
This, according to the Authority, will enable the country to harness the sector’s full potential aside from adding value to both traditional and non-traditional exports to generate more revenue for government.
Mr. Quarcoo, speaking at this year’s annual exporters’ forum in Accra, said government must strive to ensure a continual flow of funds to the agro-sector and key export trade facilitating agencies to help drive the national quest for improved foreign exchange earnings.
He said the Export Trade, Agricultural and Industrial Development Fund (EDAIF) must intensify its expansion of credit facilities to exporters and export facilitating institutions, so as to help them carry out their activities and help increase the sector’s earnings.
“There is a need for government to make funds available for agro-processing; there must also be aggressive implementation of the various projects in the National Exports Strategy, as well as other activities and programmes it has lined up in collaboration with other key export stakeholders to ensure that it meets its US$5billion target in 2019,” he said.
Mr. Quarcoo said government must provide strong macro-economic conditions at all times; through stabilisation of the cedi, reduction in inflation, as well as adequate provision of resources such as water and energy to reduce the harsh impacts on export trade.
In August 2013, government launched the National Export Strategy (NES) aimed at raising the level of export proceeds from the Non-Traditional Export sector to US$5billion by the year 2019.
The strategy took off this year and is expected to contribute to a yield of US$2.6 billion –representing about 3.4% above the earnings in 2014 (US$2.514billion) — at the end of the first year.