Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Minister of Trade and Industry has assured of government support to Ghanaian local companies and that policies developed would provide a framework that would give reference to local businesses.

He urged Ghanaians to buy made in Ghana products to boost the economy, and that, companies that engages the services of local industries would be rewarded since these companies invest in high local production.

He said this when he paid a familiarization tour to the facilities of Intelligent Card Production Systems, (ICPS), a subsidiary of Margins ID Group, and Entrance pharmaceuticals and Research Centre, a manufacturing subsidiary of Tobbinco Group, all Ghanaian indigenous companies.

Dr Spio-Garbrah commended management of the ICPS for establishing security systems that uses large technologies, which shows that the country has the potential to move the value chain in technology.

The Minister congratulated the company for the milestone it has attained in building the frontiers of Ghanaian local entrepreneurs, stressing that, there is the need to bridge the knowledge gap between academia and entrepreneurs.

Touring the facility of Entrance pharmaceuticals, he commended the ingenuity of management of the company for the bold step in establishing a plant to manufacture locally made pharmaceutical products.

He said the country has over 40 Ghanaian based pharmaceuticals companies in the country but still import 70 per cent of its drugs, adding that, there is the need to buy locally made products to reduce importation of these products.

He said a new logo designed to project the uniqueness and quality of made-in-Ghana products has been unveiled and called on Ghanaians to patronize locally produced goods.

The Minister said the logo, which has a star in the national colours of red, gold and green on a black background and the inscription ‘Made-in-Ghana — Premium Quality’ in white, was selected from about 100 entries submitted to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

“The introduction of the logo is part of efforts by the 17-member committee inaugurated by President John Dramani Mahama to design and implement strategies that will stimulate the consumption of made-in-Ghana goods” he added.

Mr Moses K. Baiden, the Chief Executive Officer of ICPS said the company provides cards for governments, institutions, organisations, corporate organisations, non-governmental organisations and associations with demographic ATM Personalization capacity in Africa and the world over.

He said a 3.5 million dollars state of the art card and security printing equipment was secured under a DANIDA mixed credit facility, which enabled a significant upgrade of security and printing facilities of ICPS.

He said the printing facilities puts ICPS in a pole position to be the leader in security printing and the manufacture of secure documents and cards on the African continent.

“The upgrade of our facility has enabled the company to achieve its vision of producing world-class products in Ghana and to contribute to the knowledge industry in the area of secured printing across different form factors, such as ID cards, cheques and labels in the country and the West African sub region,” he said.

Mr Samuel Tobbin, Chief Executive Officer of Entrance pharmaceuticals and Research Centre thanked the Minister for the visits and said the company is committed to ensuring that every product it manufactures and distributes meet the standard of quality, efficacy, safety and affordable healthcare products throughout Africa.

He said the company manufactures non-sterile preparations, including anti-malarials, ARVs and other essential medicines in line with WHO recommendations. Dedicated facilities have been provided for the manufacture of beta-lactams (penicillin) and non-beta-lactams (non-penicillin).

“With a vision to build the capacity of the local Pharmaceutical industry, Entrance Industries has incorporated into its set up, a Research Centre in collaboration with the University of Ghana School of Pharmacy.

Mr Tobbin said the Research Centre is equipped with the most modern equipment and facilities to help advance studies in Pharmaceuticals and product development”, he added.