President of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA), Dr. Joseph Obeng has urged businessmen who secure juicy contracts from government to buy made-in-Ghana goods for their projects.

He explained that procuring goods locally will allow Ghanaian traders cash in. This will give them a share of the national cake.

Dr Obeng also noted that this will help boost the Ghanaian economy, and also make it resilient to withstand any unforeseen circumstances including pandemics.

In an interview with GhanaWeb's Ernestina Serwaa Asante, the GUTA president noted that his outfit will be in talks with the procurement ministry to come out with a policy that will make contractors secure their goods from local manufacturers for any governmental bidding.

Dr Obeng said, “Most times, the way procurement is structured in this country does not make government’s spending trickle down to the informal sector and so we will engage the procurement Ministry to see how we can break tenders into lots…so that so many people can be part of the procurement and the tendering processes, otherwise government is the biggest spender.

“Our problem has been that most contracts and all that, they do not procure the goods locally these days. Everybody goes to China and elsewhere to buy. You get a huge contract; a very big amount and you do not look from within the local sources…it means that they are taking it all and the national cake we do not partake in it which is very bad. The procurement ministry must make some policy that anyone who wins contracts should source its goods locally unless they do not find it here,” he added.