GAWE hosts global women fair

Accra, March 9, GNA- Ghana is to host the 4th Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade and Investment Forum schedule for July 23 to August 2, 2009 which would bring together African women entrepreneurs and women in business across the continent.

The fair would also showcase to the world the operators in the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), relevant government agencies as well as national and regional Chamber of Women operating in Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA.

Ms Lucia Quachey, President, Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs (GAWE) local affiliate of African Federation of women Entrepreneurs (FAWE) and host of the fair was briefing the media about Programmes and activities lined up for the ten-day exhibition in Accra.

The theme for the f air is: "Women entrepreneurs' promoting intra-African and inter continental trade: Tool for attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)".

She said the Global fair and investment forum was institutionalized in 1996 to create a platform for women entrepreneurs to discuss economic issues of vital importance and to mobilize women entrepreneurs to promote networking and consensus. She called for a level playing field for both local and foreign investors, adequate regulatory framework to empower women and do away with all negative practices that hinders women's growth in business. Ms Quanchey said African women entrepreneurs have a comparative advantage in the Agro-enterprise sector such as food production, processing, preservation and aquaculture which would go along way to ensure food security for the nation.

She stressed the need for systematic and consistent policies that would help promote women own businesses and the huge informal sector to increase their growth potentials.

She said there was the need for the government to address the poor physical infrastructure, weak institutions at public and private sector, ill informed women entrepreneurs and rampant corruption in all business transactions.

She said women entrepreneurs must be encouraged to grow from small informal enterprises to formal small and medium enterprises in order to bring out their full potentials, be visible in their national economies and relevant in the global market place.