The second edition of Women in Trade (WiT) Training Workshop for inclusive and sustainable growth under agri-business and textiles businesses has been opened in Takoradi.
The five-day training programme, organised by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) in collaboration with Trade Facilitation Office (TFO) Canada, is geared toward creating a sustainable trade partnership for Ghana’s exporters with the Canadian and other foreign buyers.
The ongoing training will provide a unique and valuable platform for businesses to be familiarised with the best practices around trade shows; steps in cross-cultural negotiations and factors affecting pricing in a key export document identification of HS code for products; and factors affecting pricing in an export market among others.
The Zonal Officer of GEPA in the Western and Western North Regions, Ursula Tawiah, at the training’s opening explained that the authority’s core mandate is to promote, facilitate and develop non-traditional export products. She said the training is to encourage the women to collaborate and take advantage of the export markets.
Albert Kassim Diawura, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, explained that the training programme is part of GEPA’s efforts to groom exporters for easy access to external markets and ultimately to shore-up exports. He said international trade, unlike the local market with fewer restrictions, comes with a lot of demands.
Some of the demands he mentioned are product certifications and the legal side of trade and export documentation. According to him, it is important to keep exporters abreast with what pertains to trade in other parts of the world, so that they can produce to meet those demands.
Nelly Joana Spio-Abaidoo, Principal Export Development Officer at GEPA, said the participants will be conscientised to do away with certain myths surrounding the export of products, and be equipped with all the basic information that will prepare them adequately for exports.
She noted out that Ghanian SMEs have a lot of quality products – but when it comes to preparedness in terms of packaging, how they negotiate on the international market, there is some work to be done.
“Though, we have started going round to educate them on it, there is more room for improvement,” she said. “We are here to let them know there are guidelines and opportunities that exist; export processes are not as cumbersome as people perceive. Get in touch with the right agency, then you are good to go,” she concluded.
