Institute of Packaging Ghana to establish Centre

The Institute of Packaging Ghana (IOPG) is to establish a Packaging Centre of Excellence in Ghana to provide information, training and technical support services to industry players.

Mr Thomas Kwesi Abaidoo, President of the IOPG, said the Centre is a pressing need for Ghanaian industries, especially with the establishment of the export trade houses to provide packaging information and logistics support.

Mr Abaidoo was speaking at the opening of a two-day National Packaging Summit on the theme: “Quality Infrastructure for Effective and Sustainable Value Chain,” in Accra on Thursday.

The summit is to create space and build synergies for the National Packaging Policy to regulate the packaging industry.

The absence of a national packaging policy has hampered the growth of the industry in the country over the years.

He said the institute would continue to forge closer links with other international packaging bodies to provide training to help build the technical capacity of converters, users and exporters to meet international standards.

Dr Mustapha Ahmed, Acting Minster of Trade and Industry said packaging is increasingly becoming an important concept from the perspective of logistics and global business arena, particularly for actors in consumer product supply chain.

He said packaging technology has undergone rapid development in recent years, driven mainly by the increasing quest for food safety and transportability.

“Packaging has been identified as one of the major reasons for the inability of locally manufactured Ghanaian goods to compete favourably with imported ones,” he added.

He said it was against this backdrop that government is determined to develop the packaging industry to support national programmes for improving performance in the export trade, particularly the non-traditional sector.

The Minister re-affirmed the Ministry’s readiness to actively engage key players in the industry to stimulate action on the policy.

He said the task of producing a successful package, could be an intricate undertaking for an infant industry given the relatively low level of technological horizon.

Dr Ahmed urged the management of the institute to remain focused, commitment and optimistic amidst the challenges to plan the way forward for the industry.