Lagos, Nov. 20, Daily Trust - Ghana's Senior Export Development Officer, Mr Erasmus Ashun has lamented Nigeria's decision to ban importation of confectionery, such as chocolates from his country saying that it contradicts ECOWAS's protocol on trade.
Speaking with our correspondent at the just concluded Lagos International Trade Fair, the export officer said Ghana has been hit terribly by the ban.
Ashun said that chocolate products had been one of the "flagship" products of Ghana, adding that in the West African sub-region, Nigeria has been buying 90 per cent of Ghana's total exports of chocolate products.
"It is really hitting us. The chocolate companies would have loved to come to this fair (Lagos trade fair), but for the ban," he lamented.
Ashun said that his council has the mandate to promote exports of non-traditional products and set out the national target that 25 per cent of the non-traditional products should go to West African markets.
According to him, Ghana has developed a strategy to achieve this and has held several exhibitions of only made-in-Ghana products in Benin Republic, Mali, Sierra-Leone and Burkina Faso.
He explained that the Lagos fair was used by Ghana to test some of her products in the Nigerian market and do some intelligence marketing.
"We are also using this as a preparatory ground for the next ECOWAS Trade Fair, holding in Abuja," Ashun said.
He urged the federal government to circulate its new laws on trade to neighbouring countries to enhance compliance.
He added that Ghana had almost run foul of the law banning importation of containerized goods and that it took the intervention of the Ghanaian embassy to get the goods into trucks.
