GUTA to export products of 1D1F companies

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) says it has positioned itself to support Ghanaian manufacturing companies to export their products to countries they import from.

This is to support the Government’s One District-One Factory (1D1F) initiative, promote Ghanaian products, help in shoring up the country’s foreign exchange and address the free fall of the cedi.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Friday, Dr Joseph Obeng, President of GUTA said: “We want to do what we call the income in-income out programme to export goods from Ghana to the destinations that we go and import the goods.”

He explained that it would be like a barter trade system, where the produce from the 1D1F companies would be exported to other countries, “…we’re traders so we’ll be the same people to export these goods and when it is turned into forex then we can use it to also do our importation.”

He said: “This will be a win-win situation for us; we send these goods to the destination of import when we’re going to buy our goods, sell it, get the money and use the money that we get to buy the goods we want to import.”

Dr Obeng pointed out that the 1D1F was important to Ghana’s economic transformation, and urged all stakeholders in the agriculture value chain, financial institutions, and importantly, the government to give it all the needed support.

He said: “For the trading community, we give all our support to it, and we know this is the way forward to be able to export more goods so that we can have more forex, and depreciation of the cedi will be a thing of the past.”

The GUTA president said manufacturing was not complete unless it reached the final consumer, noting that traders served as the vehicle to send the goods to consumers to complete the chain.

He asked the government to engage traders in the 1D1F projects to help them know the products, where they were located, the quality and prices.

The president said they had been engaging the Ministry of Trade and Industry and hopeful that support from the Ministry would “help generate much interest for the trading community to think about export.”

He called on the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) to assist them with information on goods for specific countries.

The 1D1F initiative by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is to help change the nature of Ghana’s economy from one which is dependent on import and export of raw material to one focused on manufacturing, value addition and export of processed goods.

The private sector led initiative is to create the necessary conducive environment for businesses to access funding from financial institutions and other support services from government agencies to establish factories.

The programme was designed to create job opportunities for the youth, thereby increasing their income levels and standard of living. It is also expected to help in reducing rural-urban migration.

Data provided by the sector Minister, Alan Kyerematen, to Parliament as of July 2021, showed that of the 278 1D1F projects at various stages of implementation, 104 1D1F projects were in operation nationwide, and had created 150,000 jobs in their catchment areas.

He added that 150 were under construction and 24 at the mobilisation stage.

A total of 165 of them are new projects, representing 60 per cent whilst 113 companies are existing projects, representing 40 per cent.