The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has launched a national digital market hub designed for exporters and investors.
The Swiss Government through the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) supported the launch which took place last Thursday in Accra.
The market hub is to help guide producers and exporters do business with accredited and registered companies licensed to engage in exports.
The support is facilitated by the Trade Capacity Building (TCB) Programme for Ghana, a project implemented by UNIDO and funded by SECO.
UNIDO Project Manager, Mr. Juan Pablo Davila explained that export marketers and entrepreneurs are challenged on how to deal with the ever-increasing volumes and velocity of multichannel data on export goods from countries.
He added that the challenge is further complicated by the fragmented and complex customer buying touch points in countries of market interests.
“This support from the UNIDO –TCB project to the GEPA is to enable exporters, public and private sector including marketing organisations, to make insight-driven decisions and take actions based on opportunities in targeted markets,” he said.
“We are delighted that a national digital market hub in a form of trade information portal at the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) will allow marketers and exporters to fully identify customer’s quality requirements, identify where to find market data and information on export through a website,” Mr. Davila said.
SECO Deputy Head of Economic Development Cooperation, Mr. Daniel Lauchenauer affirmed Switzerland Government commitment to supporting the Government of Ghana in the effort of diversifying the economy, job creation, improve trade and the investment value addition in the country.
“We are happy that Switzerland’s support to strengthening capacities in the export value-chains through UNIDO’s Trade Capacity Building Programme is positively reflecting in Ghana’s export operations,” he said.
“We have seen our support transform and improve Ghana’s quality infrastructure – such as standardization, metrology and conformity assessment and we are glad that our support is extending to the private sector who are the major beneficiaries of this national digital market hub,” Mr. Lauchenauer added.
He congratulated the GEPA team for collaborating with UNIDO to develop the digital market hub to enhance the competitiveness of Ghanaian export enterprises.
As part of the support, UNIDO organised training and coaching on the job for the team at the GEPA and also supported the designing the new digital hub.
The digital marketing hub will serve as one-stop shop institutional portal of the Export Authority. It will help exporters determine the best customers or countries to export to, give information on market trends, standards and certification requirements, export statistics including summaries of export requirements and other practical information on EU markets for Fruits, Cocoa, Wood and Fish sectors.
Present at the launch was the Deputy Minister of Trade, Mr. Robert Ahomka-Lindsay, CEO of Ghana Investment Promotion Authority (GIPC), Mr. Yoofi Grant as well as officials of West Blue Consulting, National Investment Bank (NIB) and other partners of GEPA.
The TCB Programme aims at ensuring that goods and services emanating from or traded in Ghana are designed, manufactured and supplied in a sustainable manner that conforms to market requirements as well as those of the regulatory authorities in the local and in the export markets.
The Project is focused on four main value chains – cocoa, fish, fruits and wood.
The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) is the National Export Trade Support Institution of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) responsible for the facilitation, development and promotion of Ghanaian exports. – BDG
