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01.08.2012 Business & Finance

GCCI dismisses reports of inadequate funding

01.08.2012 LISTEN
By myjoyonline

The Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, GCCI has dismissed reports it has not participated in most international trade fairs this year due to inadequate funding.

The Chamber is reported to have failed to organize international events for and on behalf of local businesses due to its inability to access the requisite funding from appropriate agencies.

But in an interview with JOY BUSINESS, 1st Vice President, Prosper Adabla explains, the chamber is on the contrary, fully resourced and has participated in most international conferences this year.


“The chamber is very well-resourced through our own business initiatives, government support and a few donor agencies and never depended on any agency to assist us in organizing our progamnmes. And this year we've attended just about every international trade show we've been invited to” he said.

“But you must realize that the chamber cannot honour every invitation we get and so what we do is a panel sits to select which seminars to attend depending on which ones would be of maximum benefit to the local business and the country as a whole” he added.

Mr. Adabla adds that the chamber has assisted over 12 thousand local businesses so far this year by way of international promotion. He also spoke about the chambers plans for the rest of the year and the African and Caribbean Business Experience ongoing at the London 2012 Olympic Games.


“A business delegation from the UK came to down and wanted us to assist them to get business in Ghana to attend the event and we did tell our members. But if our members are to attend such shows it is not the chamber that would fund that and in the current situation is likely we would not attend because of expediency” he said.

Between now and December, we have several seminar invitations from over several chambers of Commerce of over 20 countries to attend trade shows in their countries as well as requests to also host them in our country. This requires planning and we have a master plan for it' he explained.



Story by Emmanuel Agyei / Joy Business / Ghana

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