Minister urges Authority to make export attractive for youth

Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, the Western Regional Minister, has said it was important for the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) to make the export trade attractive for Ghanaians, especially the youth, to go into the export industry.

He said another way of showing the youth to earn income was to outline programme of activities in the export industry to serve as encouragement and attractive.

The Minister made the call in a speech read for him at the opening of a two-day training workshop on “Export marketing Fundamentals” organized by the GEPA for exporters and potential exporters in Takoradi.

The workshop, which is stressing non-traditional products and services as well as agricultural export potential in the Western Region, aim at sensitizing the participants on the opportunities available in the export sector.

Mr. Aidoo appealed to GEPA to propagate the agricultural export in the Region to discourage the youth from pursuing non-existent white colour jobs.

He expressed satisfaction that the GEPA was diversifying the country’s export base and focusing on non-traditional products such as semi-processed products, foodstuffs and handicrafts.

Mr. Stephen Normeshie, General Manager of the GEPA said the authority had targeted to achieve revenue of $5 billion from the export trade by 2017.

He said revenue accrued from the non-traditional exports stands at $2.3 billion and appealed to the exporters to work hard to achieve the target.

Mrs. Adwowa Ammah-Tagoe, Head of Training of the GEPA said the Authority would fulfill its mandate to build the capacity of exporters for them to know the requirements of the international market so that their goods are not rejected.