First electronic shopping portal launched

Accra, Aug. 29, GNA - Dr Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, Deputy Minister of Communications, on Tuesday said the Government was confident that the country would soon emerge as a major Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) hub in the West Africa Sub-Region due to the numerous talents available in the country.

Speaking in Accra at the launch of the first electronic shopping portal in the Sub-Region with the address WWW.E-MARTGHANA.COM, Dr Aggrey Ntim said Ghana was counted among developing countries deploying ICTs in business with lots of imaginative talents.

Dr Ntim, who represented the Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, said the Government had made commitments in the national ICT for Accelerated Development Policy but faced the challenge of its implementation.

He, therefore, commended the efforts of the developers of e-martghana, which he said would be very effective in Government's drive at making the country the gateway to West Africa and the hub of busting economic activities.

E-MARTGHANA is an electronic market for buyers and sellers and enables visitors to either advertise their product type with prices while enabling others to also shop to identify products of their choice for a going price.

"As an electronic market, this is one of the surest ways of facing the challenge of poverty reduction in Ghana. This is because companies can now expand their markets and profit margins and this will mean higher profits and job creation which results in multiplier effects that positively affects a lot of sectors," the Deputy Minister said of the portal.

He said: "Further, Ghanaian businesses, from large scale to micro scale, now have a cheaper means of advertising and expanding sales volumes. Being exposed 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year means that you are still working even while you are sleeping." Dr Ntim said despite the potentials of e-commerce, there were some negatives that the Government was working hard to overcome. "As a demonstration of this commitment, the Ministry of Communications together with the stakeholders of the ICT industry has come out with the draft of the Electronic Transactions Bill that would specifically remove and prevent barriers to electronic communications and transactions."

Mr Abu Millah, Board Chairman of the E-MARTGHANA Portal, said their initiative would ensure that consumers had more cost effective services. He said the Portal offered consumers and businesses with opportunities to do online shopping, order for fast food, look round for real estate; auto; banking; insurance policy; do one-off sales; offered job openings and also use it as a business directory database. He said for the consumers, E-MART would enable them to relax at home or offices while shopping for items and this would save time, allow them to compare prices and also allowed people even those living abroad to shop for relatives or children in the Ghana.