We Have Supported Over 400 Ghanaian SMEs And Expanded Our Export Market GEPA CEO Reveals

Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), an organization that carries out advocacy services for Ghanaian traders involved in exports, has over the years been instrumental in expanding the Ghanaian market worldwide.

The Authority organizes workshops, exhibitions and conferences among other projects to facilitate export services for local export companies.

The Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, Osafohene Dr. Afua Asabea Asare, in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show, recounted some projects that her outfit has undertaken since her appointment to help the local exporters.

She noted that one of the flagship programmes is that Authority in conjunction with the Government of Ghana sends the local exporters abroad, sets up an exhibition for them and equips them to meet the export market.

She also revealed her outfit has supported about 450 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), facilitating export of their goods as well as providing them with the requisite resources to boost their businesses.

"One of the programmes is we giving our exporters or manufacturers the chance to do exhibitions abroad. The beautiful thing about this is that the government buys the space for their exhibitions. A small space costs about 3500...Euro but when we send our people, the government equips them and pays for the space for them", she said.

Dr. Afua Asabea Asare added that among many things that GEPA does to help local exporters adapt to the international export market, they also give farmers coconut seedlings as part of its coconut revitalization project.

They provide the farmers these seedlings "to export the development of coconut and its by-product".

She expounded; "We want to expand our raw material base because we get a lot of orders that even if we decide to take all the coconut in Ghana, we can't meet those orders. It's made us very serious, hence we have currently embarked on a coconut revitalization project which for the past six years, we've been distributing coconut seedlings".Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/