The Ghana Export Promotion Authority says it is committed to enhancing the capacity of Ghanaian exporters in efforts to boost the country’s non-traditional exports in line with the National Export Development Strategy.
The strategy projects a revenue target of $25.3 billion by the year 2029 with a focus on three strategic pillars aimed at breaking the cycle of being an economy providing mainly raw materials and minimal volumes of manufactured goods and services.
Speaking at the maiden graduation ceremony of the GEPA Export School, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GEPA, Dr Afua Asabea Asare, said the ultimate objective was to orientate a substantial number of trained men and women who were actively engaged in businesses in the industrial export product and services value chains.
“For exports to thrive, excel and succeed, it is important to ensure that they are well resourced in capacity to deliver as expected. In the long term, it is expected that Ghana’s educational system will be re-engineered to reflect the human resource needs of export-oriented industrialisation,” she said.
It is expected that graduates of the Export School will be capable of transforming Ghana’s natural resources and raw commodities into manufactured economic wealth,” she said.
GEPA, in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ITC), and the Institute of Export and International Trade (IoE&IT), runs a one-year online Diploma in International Trade for the exporting community.
The programme is recognised as the first fully online operational qualification for trade professionals to be designed specifically for the Ghanaian context, providing participants with detailed knowledge of all the principles, procedures and documentation required for a successful career in international trade.
The courses are facilitated by personnel from the industry, the private and public sector agencies, and tertiary-level educational institutions.
As part of the learning modules, the partners have in place industrial study tours for course participants which help to bridge the gap between the classroom and the real working world.
“It is expected that graduates of export school will be capable of transforming Ghana’s natural resources and raw commodities into manufactured economic wealth,” Dr Asare said.
She was confident that the multifaceted course content had equipped the graduates with opportunities to understand how to trade internationally and define business winning plans in an international trade environment especially on our continent
“I want to believe that I am looking at the next crop of business minds that will stem the tide of our continent within the decade, and give us better figures to call out when we talk about intra-African trade,” Dr Asare stated.
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Herbert Krampah, said the government continued to engage the productive sectors of the economy by rolling out programmes to provide support for institutions that had the potential to spur growth.
“Persons such as you who are graduating from the export school should be mindful of industrial strategies. You are graduating at a time when we are engaging the productive sectors of our economy and so it is for you to recognise the extra responsibility you carry because you are a pioneering class that is going to be a bedrock for a long time to come,” he said.
The Head of Learning Programme at the ITC, Shaun Lake, said Ghana, like others in the region, needed the right human capital to be able to take advantage of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“There are opportunities available under the AfCFTA and to be able to access these new single market opportunities I will advise exporters to develop new trade roadmaps for their businesses while they take advantage of the export school to learn key concepts covered in the extended export training,” he said.
Some 19 graduates who earned level 4 Diploma in International Trade passed out at a brief ceremony held by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) in conjunction with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the International Trade Centre (ITC).
GNA
