Ghana News Agency (Koforidua) – The Eastern, Volta and Oti regional branches of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) have launched an e-commerce portal to help boost the sale of members’ products and services.
The launch was done via Zoom on the theme “Accelerating the Growth of MSMEs in the Eastern, Volta and Oti Regions Through an Enhanced e-Commerce Platform”.
The initiative is a partnership between the regional branches of AGI and Logic Go Company Ltd, a digital and financial online service provider.
Addressing participants, the Eastern Regional Minister, Eric Kwakye Darfour, said it is believed that micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) contribute about 70% of Ghana’s gross domestic product. In effect, the sector is a key factor in job creation and revenue generation.
He said the government had set aside GHC600 million to serve as a stimulus package for MSMEs.
Innovation and talent
Darfour said electronic commerce was the key to enterprises’ competitiveness in the informational era, ensuring access to new market segments, increasing the speed of developing business, the flexibility of commercial policies, decreasing the provisioning, sale and advertising costs and simplifying the procedures.
He said the coronavirus outbreak had highlighted the importance of digital technologies resulting in a spike in online purchases and demand for a wide range of digital services.
Darfour said that had come at a time when African countries were preparing their businesses for the coming into being of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
He commended the AGI for introducing and adopting such an initiative, because COVID-19 had triggered an unprecedented demand for digital innovation solutions and encouraged members to position their businesses for the smooth take-off of the AfCFTA.
Kofi Addo, deputy chief commercial officer and head of the One District, One Factory programme at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said the pandemic has unearthed innovation and talents in the local markets.
“This is the time to inspire home-grown businesses to expand in their activities, because most of the MSMEs are producing organic products, which have premium prices on the world market, and there is the need to encourage them to weather the storm and look beyond COVID-19.”
Vast opportunity
Dela Gadzanku, the chairman of the Eastern, Volta and Oti regional branches of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), said the timely solution presented a vast opportunity for many small and medium-scale businesses to showcase, promote and sell their products everywhere on the globe.
He emphasised that the enterprises enlisted on the platform would have to pay attention to the quality, packaging and the overall branding of their products to avoid any negative complaints from customers.
Edem Yidan of Logic Go Ltd said the platform would carry online advertisements, platforms for electronic commerce, digital marketing and sales as well as an electronic payment system.
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