Despite unexpected impact of the novel Coronavirus pandemic on both domestic and global trading activities, Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) is sticking to the initial Non Traditional Export (NTE) revenue target.

Importantly, the average annual NTE revenue growth rate being targeted over the decade has been pegged at 16.8 percent.

The Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, Dr. Afua Asabea Asare told Goldstreet Business that the Authority is not revising any target for the year 2020 and as such conscious efforts are being carried out to achieve the set target in export revenue.

“We don’t expect the value [2020 NTE earnings] to go up, but things are in place to meet the time frame target that we have set”, she noted.

In fact, the Authority has already set value target within a particular time frame, which is, achieving strategic growth in NTE revenue to at least US$10 billion per annum by 2028, being specified in the new National Export Development Strategy.

The objective of the strategy is to achieve not less than US$5 billion in NTE exports in each of the next three years and to realise this, stakeholders are targeting 20 percent year on year export growth.

However, some industry players believe that with the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic that has had severe impact on global economy, should the pandemic continue unabated, it is likely that such target might be missed. Already, small and medium sized enterprises are known to be direly affected by the virus.

Over the years, GEPA, has intervened in various sectors under the NTEs basket through assisting exporters with technical support, seedlings among others aimed at enabling farmers to increase their yields with the most recent intervention being in the coconut and vegetable sectors. The cashew sector, pineapple and yam have also benefitted from similar interventions recently.