The Ghana Standards Authority and the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA) are set to embark on a market surveillance exercise to rid the Ghanaian market of substandard products from the first of July 2018.
The Ghana Standards Authority is the statutory agency mandated to ensure the quality of safety of goods for local use and export, while the GUTA is the largest body of local retail traders in the country.
Speaking to Citi Business News at the sidelines of the UK- Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UKGCCI) in London, the CEO of the Authority, Prof. Alex Dodoo announced that his agency and GUTA had completed a series of engagements at which they agreed to rid the markets of substandard and unauthorized products.
Prof. Dodoo commended the trade association for their pledge to support and actively take part in the exercise, realizing its potential to enhance the attractiveness of Ghanaian products.
The Ghanaian Market has been plagued with the entry and sale of substandard and fake products including electrical cables, textiles, cement, pharmaceuticals and alcoholic beverages.
This situation according to Prof. Dodoo affects consumer confidence.
“GUTA wants to be sure that their members will trade in quality goods. What they have agreed to do with the Ghana Standards Authority and become of the joint communiqué is that together we will go with them on our market surveillance so that when other members see us it is not that we are coming to destroy their business but rather we are coming to clean up the market. I will say to the credit of the Greater Accra executives of GUTA and by extension the national, is that they have come to a realization that good quality products in Ghana is good for GUTA because people will come from other countries to buy from Ghana.” he asserted.
Prof. Dodoo added, “For us, it is really something which is heartwarming because for them to even come to the decision that let’s partner with the standards authority to clean up Ghana and we are actually given the country a hint that yes those who have imported things have imported but from the first of July, we will give a three months’ notice, really it is zero tolerance for substandard products across board.”
Failure to adhere to standards for manufactured products in Ghana also hampers the country’s economic development agenda by leading to many export products being rejected.
He urged exporters from Ghana to engage with the GSA to understand the standards that pertained to the countries that pertain in their destination countries.
“The language of export is standards; basically quality or trade and business internationally is impersonal, it’s not who you know, it’s about what you have and the only way to define what you have are the standards, the length, the shape, the height, what it contains and it must be consistent. trade is about what you have and not who you are, therefore if we fail to live up to the right standards for our manufactured products, our exports will also fail,” he stressed.
–
By: Bernard Avle/citibusinessnews.com/UK