Free Zones wins international award

The Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB) has received the ‘International Star for Leadership in Quality award in Paris, France for its achievements.

The award was presented to GFZB by Business Initiatives Directions and BID Group One.

Hajia Hanatu Abubakar, Investor Support Service Manager, at a press conference in Accra said, “The award is in recognition of our hard work in the area of export-oriented investment promotion over the years.”

Hanatu Abubakar said “we would not relent in our efforts but rather continued to serve our customers to the best of our ability”.

He said the Free Zones standardizes service delivery to ensure Total Quality Management through improvement in business processes, stating that “relationship marketing through our Investor Aftercare Programme has been our hallmark over the years since we owe our profitability, growth and continuous existence to the satisfaction of the licensed free zones companies.

“Not only do we attract businesses to locate their companies in Ghana through our relationship marketing efforts, we create, maintain and enhance strong value-laden relationships between these companies and other stakeholders,” Hanatu Abubakar said.

She said Ghana’s strategic location as a middle coastal belt country, with two ports serving the landlocked countries in the sub-region, makes it an ideal location to set up industries to supply the West African market of over 300 million people and beyond.

“It is worthy to note that contrary to the misconception that the Free Zones is a reserve of foreign companies, a little over 60 percent of licensed free zones companies are wholly-owned by Ghanaians with the rest being joint ventures between Ghanaians and other foreigners,” Hanatu Abubakar said.

She said the Board has registered 253 companies with capital injection of $2.52 billion.

“We, at the GFZB, will keep distancing ourselves from any failure or mediocrity and continue be customer-focused. It is only by delighting our customers to ensure satisfaction that the Free Zones programme will continue to grow in the long-term and swim in the circle of success,” Hanatu Abubakar said.

The GFZB Programme is an institutional framework that allows businesses to site their companies in Ghana to add value to raw materials for export.

GFZB, in 2012, received an award for the “Best Website of a Free Zone or Export Processing Zone” in 2012 by the World Free Zone Convention.