The European Union has provided a grant of 700,000 Euros to four Ghanaian institutions under the Trade Related Assistance and Quality Enabling Programme (TRAQUE) for capacity development.

The beneficiary institutions are the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), the National Board for Small Scale Business and Industries (NBSSI), the Ghana Standard Authority (GSA), and the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).

GEPA would use its share of the fund to strengthen its capacities in providing assistance and services to exporters in the areas of export quality management and market information.

The product targets for this intervention are groundnuts, cereals and yam. It will involve the training of groundnuts and cereals value chain operators, to meet EU food safety requirements, and a delivery of Yam market penetration study and follow-up actions to organise yam trade promotion mission

The FDA will use the funding to improve its capabilities to effectively monitor markets for non-compliant food products, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and household chemicals and to inspect and authorize production facilities.

The GSA would improve the capabilities of the certification and inspection divisions of GSA in the delivery of a wider range of services for conformity assessment and quality management.

The NBSSI would use the funding to strengthen the capacity of NBSSI and business Development Service providers to provide advice to medium and small-scale enterprises on quality management services for food handling and processing, in achieving HACCP certification.

Mr Kofi Nuhu, Director, Manufacturing, of the Ministry of Trade said the TRAQUE programme aims to support the Ministry of Trade and Industry in private sector development, trade facilitation and capacity building with special attention to capacity issues.

He said currently the Trade component of TRAQUE programme is underway with 20 of the Ministry's staff undertaking capacity-building courses in strategy and policy development.

Mr Claude Maerten, EU Ambassador and Head of Delegation, said the capacity-building support would enable the country to move from the export of raw materials to value added products that meet the quality standards of the EU market.

Mr Michael Senayah, TRAQUE project Director, said the project has a total budget allocation of 15 million Euros over five years to help boost Ghanaian exports.

Mr Senayah said the TRAQUE programme also aimed at offering continued support to improve standards, national quality institutions and trade and private sector export support organisations.