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Made in Ghana logo will encourage quality local goods - GEPA

By Joy Business | Emmanuel Adjei
Business & Finance Made in Ghana logo will encourage quality local goods - GEPA
APR 29, 2015 LISTEN

A 'Made-in-Ghana' logo should challenge local companies to produce more quality goods for both the local and international market, that's the expectation of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA).

Government has currently stepped up efforts to create a logo for the Made-In-Ghana campaign.

The logo is expected to be released within the next two months as a committee works to establish the issuance criteria.

According to the CEO of GEPA, Gideon Quarcoo, this should ultimately inure to the benefit of the economy by boosting exports.

“On the logo, you’ll see the star design and beneath is the inscription 'Premium Quality'. So The CEO’s should think about what goes into a product described to be premium quality. Premium quality also then calls for organizations to be premium quality by having skilled workers and premium leaders with vision etc. So the businesses that may not want to be described as premium may still have to compete to survive because nobody wants to buy inferior goods” he explained.

He was speaking to Joy Business at the breakfast meeting organized by the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry; GCCI for over 100 CEO’s to deliberate on topical issues relating to the development of local businesses.

The meeting was under the theme “Building the capacity of Enterprises for the International Market: A tool for sustainable economic growth”.

The meeting was to primarily fashion out ways making local businesses more competitive on the global market and also come out with suggestions to complement government’s efforts at strengthening the private sector.

This was done by way of several presentations by both government officials and the private business leaders. The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ekow Spio-Garbrah reiterated the need for the partnership between the private sector and government to be deepened in the “Made in Ghana” Campaign to transform Ghana into an export oriented country.

The GCCI insisted the power crisis and cost of credit remain the major constraints to this agenda. The President, Seth Agyei Baah told Joy Business after the event that Ghana's competitive edge is being impeded by high cost of production.

"That is the biggest challenge because we are in a system where we’re borrowing around 40 percent, about the second highest in Africa and others at an interest rate of as low as 3 percent, we’re already disadvantaged. It means our products would invariably be higher in cost because of the high input-cost. Secondly we’re also still having a challenge with supply of energy. If I have to buy fuel to supplement production at an extra cost, it has to be put as part of the production cost. This makes our products relatively expensive – making us uncompetitive on the international market” he noted.

The GCCI’s breakfast meeting with CEO’s also afforded both its member and non-member firms, the opportunity to meet with their competitors and have cross pollination of ideas towards promoting healthy competition among themselves.

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