Burkina Faso according to the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), remains Ghana’s leading destination for Non Traditional Exports (NTEs) within the ECOWAS sub region.
Instructively, the country recorded US$741.661 million NTE trade volumes with the sub region last year, with the EU albeit maintaining the lead as Ghana’s major destination market for NTEs with US$1.145 billion worth of exports recorded last year.
Ghana’s NTE to Burkina Faso in 2018 were valued at US$238 million with only the Netherlands leading that country with almost double of the value. Last year, the country’s NTEs to the Netherlands raked in US$430 million, being the highest among ten countries ranked by GEPA as leading destination markets for Ghana.
The top ten leading NTEs destination markets has the Netherlands, Burkina Faso, India (US$230 million), France (US$198), UK (US$164 million), Togo (US$ 163 million), Vietnam (US$161 million), Germany (US$126 million), United States (US$105 million) and Mali (US$84 million).
Conversely within the sub region proper, Togo, Mali, Nigeria, Cote D’ Ivoire, Niger, Benin, Senegal, Guinea and Liberia in that order, rank after Burkina Faso as the top ten leading NTEs destination markets for Ghana in ECOWAS.
Addressing a number of CEOs at the 3rd Quarter GIPC Breakfast Meeting in Accra, GEPA’s Deputy CEO, Albert Kassim Diwura, said though the figures are encouraging, there is still much work to do to drive in more revenue from NTEs.
The key challenge of NTEs to the European Union and the ECOWAS markets he indicated, remains the lack or inadequate value addition to exports from Ghana.
Mr Kassim Diwura, on the way forward to boost exports for the country, said exporters need to adhere to standards, take advantage of trade protocols, and do extensive market research in order to break even with exports to other jurisdictions.
GEPA, he noted, is currently focused on the implementation of the 10-year National Export Development Strategy.
GIPC’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Carl Nelson at the meeting, said “the long term goal of the breakfast meeting series is to collate private sector views on important issues under the investment and trading space in collaboration with relevant agencies and collect feedback to government in support for policy formulation”.
The meeting, which was on the theme, “Promoting Trade and Export Financing to Support Ghana’s Industrialization Drive”, had in attendance business leaders and CEOs.
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