GSA to work with NBSSI to promote Upper West region exports


The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) is to work with the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) to look at how to promote exports from the Upper West Region to the wider world. 

The Director-General of the GSA, Prof. Alex Dodoo said this during the inauguration of the Upper West Regional office of the Authority in Wa. He indicated that “already we have spoken about the shea butter industry whether raw or processed shea, we know there are markets out there for it”. 

Prof. Dodoo added that support will also be given for the packaging of the shea to enable us to export enough to create jobs. 

GBC's Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo reports that the Director-General of the GSA observed that everyone knows that the current biggest problem of Ghana is lack of jobs for the youth. 

To this end, Prof Dodoo pointed that it is government’s aim “to create not just jobs but well-paid jobs that are up to standards, [jobs] that start with producing goods and meat for local consumption and for export”. 

“As Ghana Standards Authority, we are going to champion the buy made in Ghana goods campaign. Ghanaians must buy Ghana, Ghanaians must wear Ghana and Ghanaians must believe in Ghana”, he emphasized. 

Prof. Dodoo advised SMEs who need the services of GSA to go directly to their offices or to NBSSI in the regions and not to waste time travelling to Accra for services they can get faster, cheaply or freely locally. 

He stated that the industrial transformation agenda of the government starts and subsist with standards.  

Prof Dodoo announced that from January 2018, the GSA will apply the laws of Ghana as mandated by the Ministry of Trade and Industries (MoTI) and that “every single locally made goods will be certified before being sold on the market”. 

The Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Sulemana Alhassan said he was happy to be at the formal opening of the office of GSA in the Region which he described as “long overdue”. 

He was very thankful to the Minister of Trade and Industries and all others who played a role in establishing the office and pledged that the office will be kept in a better shape to serve the public. 

The Regional Minister pointed out that the mandate of GSA is based on three pillars -“testing”, “certification” and “inspection”- which play key roles in the development of every nation, saying the opening of the office in Wa is a blessing for Upper West. 

Alhaji ALhassan entreated the GSA to intensify its efforts in educating the public on the need to produce quality goods for Ghana to be able to compete with the rest of Africa and charged the officers in Wa to uphold their mandate.  

He told the people of Upper West “to see the opening of the office as a blessing and not as a harassment of a sort to their businesses”. 

The Chief Director of MoTI, Dawarnoba Baeka recalled his posting to Upper West in the early 1990s as the officer in charge of NBSSI and told the staff posted to man the GSA office in Wa that running a new office is a daunting task and charged them to brace themselves up to the job ahead. 

He said the government has a ten point agenda for industrialization and was hopeful the Wa office of the GSA will serve as a catalyst to the industrialization policy by appropriately regulating the business environment. 

Mr. Baeka announced that   GRATIS Foundation will also be resourced to get state-of-the-art equipment to enable it plays it fabrication role well to help the various SMEs. 

The Deputy Director-General of GSA, Frank Kofi Nagertey stressed the importance for land acquisition to be made attractive as a way of wooing investors.

GBCONLINE
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