Ho, May 21, GNA - Small scale enterprises intending to produce for non-traditional exports market have been advised to organize themselves into groups to meet export orders on regular basis.

Mr Edward Collins Boateng, Executive Secretary, Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC) gave the advice at a dialogue between the Media, Small Scale Entrepreneurs and GEPC in Ho on its role in promoting Micro and Small-Scale Enterprises Sector.

The forum was jointly organized by Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and KAB Governance Consult as part of a project which seeks to use the media to strengthen business advocacy in the country. Mr Boateng said the bane on the country's non-traditional export sector was the unwillingness of stakeholders to respond to "group dynamics" in their business relations.

"We are averse to working with each other, we want to compete against ourselves that is what grieves me, "he lamented. He said there were currently 15 product associations which should be contacted by new entrants to the non-traditional export sector. Mr Boateng advised potential non-traditional exporters to use the local market as a testing and training ground, attend trade fairs and GEPC's training programmes on "export fundamentals" to prepare themselves to face challenges in the export arena. He urged exporters to countries in West Africa to factor "facilitation fees" into their pricing and target niche markets rather than the wider market.

Mr Boateng said due to measures adopted by GEPC, the non-traditional export sector was able to increase its share of foreign exchange earnings for the country from 400 million dollars in 2000 to 1.3 billion dollars in 2008. Mr Kwasi Afriyie Badu, Chief Executive Officer of KAB Governance Consult said viability of the non-traditional export sector needed to be supported to grow to provide the economic strength that the country required.

This is because the country's democracy must justify itself by the economic benefits it yielded to the citizenry. Some of the issues discussed by the participants included lack of support from state institutions to their efforts at entering the export market, difficulty in accessing loans and grants under state funded schemes, lack of information on the sector.