GEPA calls for strategy to address import dependency

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Exports Promotion Authority (GEPA), Dr Afua Asabea Asare, has asked the 10 technical committees tasked to drive the implementation of the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS) to be innovative in ensuring that the country moves away from its dependency on imports.

Speaking at a NEDS-African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation workshop in Accra, Dr Asare said stakeholders needed to help to deliver the country from its current state of dependency on imports by tackling the situation from the grassroots.

“We are charting an integrated approach not only in terms of finding the right mix but also the need for partnerships for a groundbreaking approach to implementing the strategy,” she said.

The NEDS was launched to provide a clear direction and intent to increase non-traditional export (NTE) earnings to US$25.3 billion by 2029.
Dr Asare said after the first year of the NEDS implementation, records indicate a US$3.3 billion revenue from NTEs.

This represents a 17 per cent growth over 2020 earnings of US$2.84 billion, posting an increase in the annual average growth rate of 7.07 per cent.

“Despite this increase, a lot more effort would have to be exerted to ensure significant increases for the achievement of the target,” Dr Asare stated.
Dr Asare hinted at plans for a district sensitisation programme on the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS) across the country.

Together with other stakeholders, it is expected that at the end of the sensitisation, stakeholders are not only aware of the content of the NEDS but also know and appreciate their roles and contributions towards attaining the target.

Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Herbert Krapa, called for institutional collaboration to ensure speedy but thorough deliberations in the drive to implement the export development strategy.

“We cannot implement the National Export Development Strategy without institutional collaboration. I mean institutional collaboration in the truest sense of the phrase: which naturally starts with a recognition that parties being invited to the table truly have something to
offer, and parties sitting around the table, accepting in similar respectable fashion, that they must give everything they can to make what we do a success,” Mr Krapa stated.

The Deputy Trade Minister noted that “gradually, slowly, surely and steadily, we are shifting gear into full-blown implementation of the National Export Development Strategy.

This is perhaps the junction they call ‘a point of no return’, and we cannot afford to retreat at this point.

We have built enough momentum for take-off and we must do so with only one outcome in mind: a successful implementation.