The Ghana Standards Authority on Tuesday organised an awareness creation forum for stakeholders in the export and import sector towards the implementation of the Ghana Conformity Assessment Programme (GCAP) in Wa.

The forum was organised to help address the numerous questions that were asked by the stakeholders and the general public after the first awareness programme held across Ghana.

Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, the Upper West Regional Minister urged the stakeholders to take keen interest and actively participate in the discussions to enable them reap the benefits of the GCAP.

He explained that the Ghana Standards Authority, as part of its measures to guarantee the health and safety of Ghanaian consumers, came out with the GCAP to curb the production and importation of products that did not conform to safety standards of the Authority.

He said the aim of the GCAP was to ensure that specific products met the requirements of the technical regulations and standards set in the importing country to protect health, safety and environment requirements.

The GCAP was also to prevent the importation of sub-standard and unsafe products, protecting the health and safety of consumers and the environment as well as avoiding the situation where the domestic market was used as a ground for dumping non-conforming productions.

Alhaji Sulemana said under the programme, it was the responsibility of the supplier and exporter to demonstrate that his or her goods were in compliance and that was done through the combination of interventions, such as laboratory testing, physical inspection and factory audit.

He said if the programme was implemented, it would not only guarantee the safety of products available in the Ghanaian market, but would also improve the standards of products in Ghana for domestic consumption and export.

The Ghana Standards Authority should therefore use the forum not only to sensitise stakeholders about GCAP, but also ensure it was able to erase all the negative perceptions formed by the general public for the smooth implementation of the programme, Alhaji Sulemana advised.

Mr. Clifford E. Frimpong, Head, Food and Agriculture Department at the Ghana Standards Authority, said GCAP was to help promote the use of honest trade practices and protect the interest of local producers, as well as facilitate the customs clearance process.

He said under the programme, the conformity of the product was evident by the issuance of a certificate of conformity, usually requested for customs clearance, while verification was done in the exporting country.

Mr. Frimpong who is also Chief Standards Officer, explained that by that intervention, it helped to reduce delay in the process and ensure the swift clearance of goods at the points of entry.