The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Ekwow Spio-Gabrah, has called on the media to get actively involved in the national campaign of promoting made-in-Ghana products.

Dr Spio-Gabrah made the call during the Made-in-Ghana Breakfast Meeting in Accra to interact with stakeholders, especially the media, to seek their collaboration in driving the national agenda.

The meeting was on the theme, “The media, a panacea for building unique local brands.”

“We consider the role that the mass media play as very important. So even before the whole project is formally launched, we have found it prudent to meet with you,” he said.

Dr Spio-Gabrah said the need to interact and solicit ideas from the media in running the campaign was crucial to the programme which would be officially launched next month.

He also stressed the need for Ghanaians to change their mindset and behaviour towards locally manufactured goods so that industries could expand their capacities and produce more.

The move, he said, would also enable the country to consciously make a shift in the current situation where it was heavily dependent on imports and diversify its exports, as well as improve the health of the economy.

Realising the spate of annual budget and balance of payment deficits, the government last year introduced measures to ensure the increase in exports and reduction in imports.

Among these measures was the launch of a Made-in Ghana Goods and Services campaign to raise the awareness among citizens of the need to patronise goods and services produced locally.

Subsequently, a special committee was inaugurated to oversee the promotion of made-in-Ghana goods and services to help achieve the national goals.

In order to drive demand and help grow the economy, the committee was later divided into three groups, namely Technology, Innovation and Production Capacity Committee; Policy, Regulations and Legal Committee; and Communication, Advertising, and Marketing Committee to ensure that their work was enduring and not time-sensitive in order to help promote made-in-Ghana goods.

The Policy, Regulations and Legal Committee is responsible for identifying current policies, legislation, regulation and legal system while the Technology, Innovation and Production Capacity Committee is to identify the industrial and manufacturing establishments

The Communication, Advertising, and Marketing Committee looks at the dimensions of what needs to be done, to make Ghanaians prefer Ghanaian products.

In his address, the President of the Advertisers Association of Ghana, Mr Joel E. Nettey, said the promotion of the made-in Ghana campaign required a change in mindset from the government to the final consumer.

Aside that, he said, there was the need for the government to come up with policies that would help subsidise the products of some sectors in order to make their final sales cheaper for the consumer to buy, adding that subsidising would ensure that they were able to produce the quality that the consumer was looking for.

In her remarks, the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, lauded the Ministry of Trade and Industry for bringing up an initiative that would help drive the purchase of local products by Ghanaians.