Some 70 small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) drawn from Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone among other West African countries have converged in Accra to showcase new products and services at the West African Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP) Made-in-ECOWAS Exhibition.
The three-day event, which commenced on Thursday, June 29, will end on Saturday, July 1, 2023. It will the exhibitors an opportunity to network and forge business partnerships.
The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) is organising the programme, in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), under its flagship project; the WACOMP, with funding from the European Union.
It is on the theme: 'Building SMEs Competitiveness for Intra African Trade'.
Addressing exhibitors at the opening ceremony in Accra, Dr Afua Asabea Asare, the Chief Executive Officer, GEPA, said the exhibition would provide a suitable platform for SMEs in the Sub-region to showcase their innovative products and services and establish potential business partnerships for export.
The exhibition, she said, focused on processed fruits such as mangos and pineapples, as well as root tubers like cassava.
Cosmetics and personal care value chain services are also on display.
The WACOMP initiative, implemented by GEPA and UNIDO since 2019, also aimed at increasing the performance and growth of prioritised value chains and associated services, as well as improving intra regional trade, export, sustainable livelihoods, and job creation.
Dr Asare expressed the belief that the event would provide an avenue for SMEs to increase awareness of the high-quality products in the Sub-region and encourage sourcing of components and raw materials to support manufacturing.
'Business is not as usual anymore. We must be deliberate with every decision and step we take, taking into account the huge market potential and benefits thereof,' she said.
She highlighted some of the initiatives undertaken by GEPA to support SMEs to market their products across Africa such as the establishment of the Ghana Trade House in Nairobi, Kenya, to stock premium Ghanaian products, the Women's Icon Regional Exhibition, and GEPA's Impact Hub, which provides information technology facility for the business community to access trade information.
Dr Charles Kwame Sackey, the Chief Technical Advisor for WACOMP, said the exhibition would provide an avenue for the SMEs to forge business partnerships to scale up export to new markets, citing instances where some previous exhibitors had secured business deals to export to the United States and some European countries.
'You should pay attention to all customers or clients who visit your stands since those could be potential business partners,' he advised the participants.
Source: Ghana News Agency