The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has slammed government over the continuous decline in the exports of goods and services by the private sector in Ghana.
According to the AGI, Ghana stands to lose huge foreign exchange revenue following the decline.
Data from the central bank showed that export earnings declined in 2015 as a result of the plunge in the price of gold and oil on the global market.
The total export earnings were 2.56 billion dollars, down from 2.88 billion dollars in March 2016 the same year.
Speaking to Citi Business News at the sidelines of the launch of the 5th AGI Awards on the theme “Growing local Industry for Export Development and Job creations”, President of the AGI James Asare Adjei asked for collaboration with government to find innovative ways to develop the industrial sector.
‘In the past two years we have seen turbulence in the economy, but there has been some seeming stability, what we need to do as a country is to see a growth trajectory and we can only experience that through export development.
There are huge markets around us if you take the West African region with about 350 million people.
We need to leverage on that, build the capacities of the local industries here in the country to ensure that we bring in the needed foreign exchange to shore up our cedi.
I don’t think that we can go back to this issue of depreciation as we experience in 2014 and 2015. Therefore export orientation is the key for businesses’.
James Asare Adjei added that the association is ‘using the awards to galvanize the members of the industrial sector, private sector operators who really want to go beyond the shores of Ghana to expand their businesses’.
The AGI awards, which is the fifth since inception, has the following key award categories, Overall Best Industrial Company of the Year, Best Corporate Social Responsibility Company, Best Company Employer of the Year, Young Enterprise Company (Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award), Fastest Growing Company of the Year and Best Practices in Sustainable Manufacturing Company.
There has been a new addition to the main categories which is “Best Social Enterprise Award”
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By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana
