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27.02.2015 Business & Finance

Media urged to intensify Made-in-Ghana campaign

By GNA
Media urged to intensify Made-in-Ghana campaign
27.02.2015 LISTEN

EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE
Accra, Feb. 27, GNA - Dr Ekow Spio-Gabrah, Minister of Trade and Industry, has called on the media to encourage Ghanaians to patronise Made-in-Ghana goods to strengthen the national economy and expand local industries.

Dr Spio-Gabrah said Government was introducing measures to increase the country's export and reduce its import to improve the health of the economy.

The Minister was speaking during an interaction between the Made-in-Ghana Committee and the media in Accra.

He said the goal of the Committee was not only to promote the products and services, but to ensure that the necessary legal regimes were in place, policies developed to drive the agenda and ensure an effective national communication campaign to change mindset and behaviour.

'It behoves on the Committee to get Ghanaians to change their perceptions about Made-in-Ghana products to drive demand and help grow the local economy as well as build their capacities to produce more,' he said.

Dr Spio-Gabrah said to achieve good results a steering committee had been divided into three groups - Technology, Innovation and Production Capacity; Policy, Regulations and Legal; and Communication, Advertising and Marketing.

He said the group was an inter-agency committee with membership drawn from various interest and professional groups supported by the Ministry's technical staff.

Mr Joel Nettey, the President of the Advertising Association of Ghana, said the Association had demonstrated its commitment to support the Minister of Trade and Industry to see the campaign on patronising Made-in-Ghana goods and services succeed.

He said the essence of the entire exercise was to beef up the country's economic fortunes both individually and as a nation by creating local wealth as well as empowering the people economically to improve their quality of life.

Mr Nettey said the problem about non-patronage of Made-in-Ghana goods was a multi-pronged one and must be dealt with the same way.

He said the products and services on offer must meet the quality expectations of the consumers if they were expected to forgo all the other choices they were literally inundated with and choose the product or service that is Made-in-Ghana.

'We must study the target consumers of the various products… committing to research where necessary to ensure that we meet and even exceed their expectations,' he said.

'To guarantee success we must ensure that Made-in-Ghana goods and services, be they foodstuff, clothing or services compete favourably for price with the options that our consumers are faced with even if the country must subsidise.

'We need an attitude change … from our producers, through to our service providers and of course to our potential consumers.   We need to be in the consideration set of the consumer,' he said.

'Buy Made-in-Ghana' is not a slogan or a tagline. To be successful it has to be and requires a Quantum Mindset Shift and Major Attitudinal Change,' he said.   

GNA

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