Would Made-in-Ghana campaign achieve its desired impact?

In 2013 alone, the country spent 1.5 billion dollars on the importation of rice, sugar, fish, tomato and basic cooking oil.

Many Ghanaians have developed preference for foreign products, leading to the importation almost everything from sugar to toothpicks into the country. This high level imports have been cited as a major factor for the falling value of the cedi and it has become necessary to encourage the patronage of locally-manufactured goods.

The Trade and Industry Minister, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah during his swearing-in hinted of making the Made in Ghana campaign a priority. One of his first actions in this regard was to enjoin all personnel at the ministry to wear outfits made out of local-textiles every day of the week.

The ministry earlier this week also launched the logo for the “Made-In-Ghana campaign.

The campaign has caught on well and all seems to be underway to ensure the promotion of locally made goods.

President Mahama last December set up an 18-member steering committee chaired by the Trade Minister to implement this project.

The committee had indicated plans to run a generic campaign to foster patriotism and encourage patronage of locally-made products.

But the Marketing Research Association in a recent meeting with the committee called for a multi-sectoral approach to the made-in-Ghana campaign.

The President, Gordon Biaku told Joy Business, “the approach should be different for each sector. The alcoholic beverage sector, for instance is doing well. Let's focus on the sectors that are not doing well so made-in-Ghana products can be patronized across board.”

In response, board member for the Made-in-Ghana campaign and Executive Director of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, Kwabena Agyekum says a generic campaign would run alongside other sector-biased ones.

The Made-in-Ghana campaign needs the support of every consumer in this country. Many Ghanaians though applaud the campaign insist they would not compromise quality for patriotism.

This is not the first time such a campaign has been launched. But perhaps we could for once implement a strategy that could save local industries for the benefit of the economy.