No country can survive without business - Appia Menkah
Accra (Greater Accra) 28 November 2001- Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, has proposed the appointment of a fulltime national African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) Co-ordinator to take charge of issues concerning the Act and help re-double efforts for Ghana to take advantage of it.
The co-ordinator would also sensitise the public and explain AGOA's technicalities to the public and private sector, he said.
The Minister made the proposal in Accra on Tuesday when he briefed the press on the outcome of meetings held in the United States on AGOA where President George W. Bush announced the creation of a 200 million-dollar overseas private investment corporation support facility for African firms.
The amount is to be utilised as loans, guarantees and political risk insurance for investment projects in Sub-Sahara Africa.
AGOA extends duty-free/quota-free benefits to imports of a number of apparel items and textile products. For a country to be eligible to export apparel and textile duty-free to US, it should first be designated eligible for apparel and textile benefits.
This designation is based on a country having an effective visa system to prevent the unlawful transhipment of apparel and textile articles and the use of counterfeit documents, in respect of articles imported into the US. Ghana is yet to receive its visa.
Dr Apraku said all the major issues had been resolved and officials of his ministry, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service and the US Embassy, were addressing a few minor ones.
"When Ghana is designated as an eligible beneficiary of the apparel textiles provision of the Act, it can have access to the 70 billion dollar US consumer market for apparel."
The Minister said apart from the textiles, there were over 7,000 items that qualified under AGOA that the country could take advantage of Ghana has a 14-member implementation committee to co-ordinate various efforts under AGOA and to support the implementation of specific activities under the Presidential Initiative.
He said the appointment of a full-time national co-ordinator would enhance programmes underway. Dr Apraku said his trip also took him to Germany and Qatar where he promoted investment opportunities in Ghana.
He said in the US, the summit provided him with the opportunity to interact with trade ministers, private sector operators from the US and Africa where he informed them of Ghana's stable political climate and macro-economic stability needed for investment.
"I told them that interest rates had been reduced and greater transparency introduced in government expenditure and activities and stressed that risks and corruption had reduced ...making Ghana a potential market and investment location."
In the US, the Minister visited California, Houston among others and in Germany he visited Berlin and held meetings with the chambers of industry and commerce of Bielefeld, Kiel and Hamburg.
Dr Apraku said he highlighted priority areas of investment in Ghana including cocoa processing, fruits and vegetable processing, eco-tourism, information technology and e-commerce and oil exploration.
He said discussions at the World Trade Organisation ministerial meetings yielded good results with agricultural subsidising countries, in particular, EU, agreeing to reduce it with a view to phasing out all forms of export subsidies.
This, the minister said, was in line with the African position of the elimination of all such subsidies, which hurt African agricultural efforts.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 28 November 2001- Mr Akenten Appiah-Menkah, an Industrialist, has said that no country could survive without the business community.
He said it was, therefore, a matter of regret that over the past 20 years Ghanaian businessmen were subjected to insults and branded as thieves and criminals with attempts made to kill their businesses. This, he said, resulted in the stagnation of the economy.
The industrialist said it was to correct this unfortunate situation that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had made the private sector the engine of growth.
Mr Appiah-Menkah was speaking at the opening of "Grand Sales 2001" in Kumasi, being held under the theme: "Bringing buyers and sellers together".
The weeklong fair is being organised by the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited in collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI), Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Mr Appiah-Menkah told industrialists that the quality of their product, its packaging, pricing and publicity needed to be considered if they were to compete favourably in the global market.
He noted that one area where an industrialist or manufacturer could publicise his product was at trade fairs and exhibitions saying that these were the most effective means of marketing a product.
Mr Appiah-Menka said this was the time for Ghanaians to push their brands by patronising made in Ghana goods. He also called for support for the numerous artisans at the Suame Magazine in Kumasi and suggested that the year 2002 be declared "Ghana Year".
Mr Kwasi Osei Agyei, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, urged producers to place emphasis on the consumer as their priority saying that research had shown that well packaged made in Ghana goods sold quickly in the markets just like any imported goods.
He noted that Grand Sales had good international recognition in the ECOWAS sub-region pointing out that since its introduction in 1991, it had contributed immensely towards the development of quality products and created vibrant markets for the less known products and services both locally and internationally.
Grand Sales had for the past 10 years won the hearts of many industrial and commercial operators and had been the most accepted and well-patronised mid-year sales event.
Mr E.E.K. Acquah-Moses, Regional Manager of AGI for the Northern Sector, said the Ashanti Region had in the past held its fairs at the National Cultural Centre but noted that the site had now become inappropriate due to the dislocation of trading as a result of the Kejetia project.
Mr Acquah-Moses said AGI was proud to be associated with the Ghana Trade Fair Company in organising the events as everything pointed to successful activities during the weeklong sales.
He said AGI was particularly happy about the choice of Kumasi as its first location for an outreach programme after successfully organising a series in Accra.
He said the central location of Kumasi made it easily accessible to the business community and the commercial operators from the northern and southern parts of the country.
Ms Esther Dzifa Ofori, Chief Executive of the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited, said the choice of Kumasi for its outreach programme was symbolic since it was easily accessible and that Kumasi and for that matter Ashanti served as the commercial hub of the country not to talk of the business dynamics of the people of the region.
The GTFC was convinced that the business spirit in Kumasi would drive the producers, commercial operators, consumers and traders in Ashanti and the other regions up country to patronise the programme so as to make it the largest trading event in the region.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 28 November 2001
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 7,069.91 7,267.00
Pound Sterling 9,979.18 10,261.00
French Franc 950.70 976.98
Swiss Franc 4,251.71 4,369.55
Deutsche Mark 3,188.03 3,277.02
Canadian Dollar 4,431.45 4,554.17
Japanese Yen 56.87 58.44
Dutch Guilder 2,829.85 2,908.04
S/African Rand 716.73 735.94
Euro 6,238.55 408.32
CFA Franc 9.51 9.77
Naira 64.31 66.10
Ecowas/WAUA 9,032.45
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