The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has assumed implementation of various green modules to benefit local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), starting with a pilot of voluntary and sustainability green business practices.
Over the past three years the International Trade Centre’s (ITC) GreenToCompete hub was hosted by GEPA – a collaboration that has offered technical assistance to local SMEs through capacity building focusing on aspects of sustainability in resource efficiency, voluntary and sustainability standards (VSS), e-commerce and access to finance since 2019.
With implementation of various modules under the initiative coming to an end, GEPA has taken over the project to manage it and benefit SMEs under similar orientations.
Deputy CEO of GEPA, Mr. Samuel Dentu, addressing participants at the transitioning ceremony in Accra said the GreenToCompete project, in the three-year period under the ITC, had benefitted over 50 exporting and export-ready SMEs in the cocoa, Shea processing, fruit/vegetables, and arts and crafts sectors.
“These SMEs received trainings under the Hub, including personalised coaching to enable them chart an easy path to more sustainable trade by better understanding the sustainability landscape, and to connect with green finance international markets,” he said.
Mr. Dentu said the receipt of comprehensive support on incorporating the GreenToCompete hub into GEPA’s portfolio of services has made the Authority ready to take over the Hub’s activities and deliver various green modules to the benefit of Ghanaian SMEs. “This we intend to do, beginning with a pilot of the voluntary and sustainability standards module for selected SMEs to be part of the piloting,” he added.
Desk Manager of GreenToCompete Hub Ghana at the ITC, Regina Taimasova, said the initiative’s completion by the ITC has offered a renewed opportunity for GEPA to effectively take up the project and implement it to benefit local SMEs.
She said the project has in the last three years benefitted over 200 individuals in a key non-traditional export sector. “The ITC wishes to commend GEPA for lending support toward a successful implementation of the project in Ghana,” said Ms. Taimasova.
