The Publisher of the Made in Ghana Magazine, Emmanuel Tetteh Adamitey has praised the government for putting together the 'Made in Ghana Street Fair' which will take place at Osu from 16th to 17th December 2017 in Accra.
The praise comes a day to the event which is expected to promote patronage of Ghana Made Goods and services as we enter the yuletide.
"I wish to commend the Presidency, especially the President of the country Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, for personally championing the cause of the street show by announcing it first during the Chamber of Commerce awards in Accra Recently. This gives us the encouragement and goes to state that the President is involved with what goes around us daily as Ghanaians and is actively involved in them," Mr Adamitey stated.
It is expected that several companies both large, Medium and small scale will participate in the event and showcase their goods and services during the two-day event, which Mr Adamitey said was wholly inadequate for the event.
Mr Adamitey, an exhibition strategist who has put together several made in Ghana fairs in and out of the country, said Ghanaians like to do ‘window shopping’ first during exhibitions of this nature, they will come view and will go prepare and come back to buy. With only two days for this exhibition, before one comes back to buy the event might be over.
Exhibitors, on the other hand, spend sleepless nights to prepare their wares for exhibitions and needed more time to display. Displaying one's wares during exhibition itself takes more than a day.
He advised that if the choice of venue will inconvenience businesses on the Osu Oxford street on weekdays, the organizers should consider adding more days to the event or have it moved to Trade Fair Centre after the weekend and add more days to the event. This he said will help the merchandisers do more sales and buyers also have the flexibility of patronizing the goods and services being offered.
"Don’t forget the timing is ahead of payment of salaries by some employers whose employees will want to do purchases for the yuletide," Mr Adamitey emphasised.
He hinted that the 'Made in Ghana Magazine' will next year organise a regional road show to prop manufacturers and producers of Ghana Made goods and services in the hamlets to participate in series of regional exhibitions in all the 10 regions of the country after which identified potentials from the regions will participate in a national Made in Ghana Exhibition in Accra.
The idea is to promote hidden talents from the hamlets, expose them, bring their products and inventions to the limelight and assist with value addition. This we believe will help unearth talents and assist government to explore the districts and enhance its one district one factory initiative.
"As government makes frantic efforts to promote the one district one factory initiative, it should not lose sight of smaller businesses in the district which also have the potential to become big industries in their hamlets as against white collar big businesses with big proposals, huge expenditure with zero growth potentials for the district. It is better to grow a business in the district which will better the lives of the indigenes rather than enforce a business on the districts which will end up exploring the people in the district and devastate the district itself." he advised.