The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) has inaugurated the Steering Committee for the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS), made up of top executives to bring on board their expertise and pull resources together to ensure a successful national export strategy.

The Steering Committee comprises Chief Executive Officers of some top state agencies and enterprises, and is the second-highest body under the NEDS – just below the Inter-Ministerial Committee, before the Coordinating Committee and other agencies.

The 13-member Steering Committee has the principal roles of providing overall oversight and direction for effective implementation of the Strategy; considering and streamlining projects implementation issues; making recommendations to the inter-ministerial oversight body; and undertaking advocacy and promotion for the NEDS to both external and internal organisations.

The committee also has a mandate to provide quarterly and annual reports to the Inter-ministerial Committee on implementation progress, and make recommendations to the committee as well as mobilise financial resources.

Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Herbert Krapa – speaking on sector minister’s behalf at the inaugural ceremony, mentioned that the NEDS provides an objective picture of Ghana’s current export environment and a clear vision of the desired evolution for Ghana’s non-traditional export sector from 2020 to 2029.

“The NEDS is a national export development blueprint for significantly increasing Non-traditional Export (NTE) revenue within 10 years, with total NTE revenue of US$25.3billion by 2029,” he said.

He emphasised that because membership of the Committee is a result of being CEO of their respective institution, a member’s tenure is tied to that of the position. Therefore, once a person resigns or is redeployed, their membership of the Committee comes to an end.

The Committee is chaired by the Chief Director at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The team comprises representatives from the following institutions: The Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Local Government Decentralisation and Rural Development, National Coordination Office of AfCFTA, National Development Planning Commission, Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Export-Import Bank, and Ghana Standards Board among others.

The trade minister emphasised that AfCFTA provides a great opportunity for countries like Ghana to harness effective implementation of the National Export Development Strategy. The recently launched NTE statistics Report revealed a 17 percent increment, which reflects US$3.3billion in export revenue.

Steering Committee Members

Board members included Patrick Yaw Nimo, Chief Director-Ministry of Trade and Industry; Dr. Afua Asabea Asare, CEO-GEPA; Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, CEO-Ghana Enterprises Agency; Reginal Yofi Grant, CEO-Ghana Investment Promotion Centre; Seth Twum Akwaboah, CEO-Association of Ghanaian Industries; and Marjorie Abdin, Vice President-Federation of Association of Ghana Exporters.

The others are Mark Badu Aboagye, CEO-Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Lawrence Agyinsam, CEO-Ghana Export-Import Bank; Mike Oquaye Jnr.-CEO, Ghana Free Zones Authority; Prof. Alexander Dodoo, Director-General – Ghana Standards Authority; Benonita Bismarck, CEO-Ghana Shippers’ Authority; and Delese Mimi Darko, CEO-Food and Drugs Authority; Eric Bentsil Quaye, Director-Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate.

Activities under NEDS so far

The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) and its partners have been on the road to sensitise 261 districts across the country on the National Export Development Strategy and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The sensitisation’s first phase covered 30 of the 74 clusters in the country’s 261 districts. There were 115 districts in the first 30 clusters covered. Three teams were composed – namely the Northern Team, the Middle Team and the Southern Team – to cover the northern zone, middle-belt and southern zone respectively.

So far, 249 potential exporters have been identified through this exercise, and they will be guided as they develop their products to be exported.