Several reports have indicated that women engage more in trading activities within the ECOWAS sub-region than men, the Deputy Minister for International Trade at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, has said.

These women, just like other business owners, face several challenges including trade finance and managing cash flows.

To help address one of their numerous problems, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, with the help of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has distributed tablets to 20 importers to help them operate in a more formal way in this digitalization era.

She indicated that this is the pilot phase of the project carried out by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in partnership with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

According to her, the pilot phase of this project will enable traders operate in a more formal way.

Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei entreated these traders to make use of the several social media platforms to sell their goods, keep their resources, and increase sales.

The distribution of the gadgets, she said will ensure that all traders are equipped with the right information to help them expand their various businesses.

Speaking at the ECOWAS cross-border cooperation women in development network project held in Accra on Monday, July 29, 2024, the Deputy Minister for International Trade at the Ministry of Trade and Industry said, “We know that for every economy to drive and drive well, it means the private sector is doing well and today, one sector of the private sector that we are taking care of is the importers…there are a lot of products that they import onto our market and the majority of these micro, small, and medium importers are women and they usually go through vast challenges to ensure that their operations are smooth enough."

"ECOWAS today supported us to be able to support our micro traders, importers with these gadgets to enable them to take advantage of the new era. In the past, we supported traders with bookkeeping and other things but today, we want them to also take advantage of the digitalized era and we want them to be able to have contact. They wouldn’t need to travel all the way to where they import their cargo from and with these gadgets, hopefully, they will be able to operate in a more formal way than they usually were operating," she added.

Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei further said, "This is a pilot and the pilot has 20 of these importers and we took time to pick the 20 randomly from various sectors within the entire union."

She emphasized that this project forms part of the Ministry of Trade and Industry's mandate to formulate policies and programmes to support the operations and businesses of the private sector.

SA/NOQ