Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States of America, Dr Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, has emphasised the need to support Ghanaian businesses seeking to penetrate the American markets through effective collaboration with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and other relevant state agencies set up by the government to assist local producers to reach the international markets.

According to the Ghanaian diplomat, domestic brands have been unable to effectively compete on the international market due to poor presentation of products among many other factors.

He noted that some of these entry barriers could easily have been dealt with should there be a support mechanism aimed at providing technical assistance to Ghanaian exporters on the requirement to penetrate the foreign market and to be able to compete in the space.

Ambassador Dr Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah was speaking in an interview with Harriet Nartey on Pan African Television programme Diplomatic Affairs on Saturday, December 19, 2020.

He lamented the fact that local brands are mostly left to carry out their trading activities on the international market with little or no technical guidance from the diplomatic mission and the GIPC, a situation that makes it more difficult for them to succeed.

He said the counterparts of Ghanaian businesses from other countries usually collaborate with their government agencies to trade globally.

“These are issues that come up when most of the exports to other countries are handled by individual Ghanaian business people,” he said.

“But I think we have a lot of commodities that we can actually get onto the American market. The thing is the American market is a big one but then also a sensitive one, usually very well regulated and therefore we ought to as it recognised the parameters with which we are playing in and then make sure that our goods are quality and have a wonderful presentation,” he added.

The Ambassador is therefore of the view that “we need some support for Ghanaian exporters with regard to the presentation of our products”