The workshop aims to support the export community to acquire managerial, technical and trade capacity as well as understand the current global export trends to give Ghana a competitive edge.

Opening the second edition of the 2018 training programmes, Madam Afua Asabea Asare, the Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, said the non-traditional export sector presented many opportunities for exporters and held the key to the country’s diversification drive.

 Madam Asare said provision of trade information was a big tool to help exporters explore markets and make incremental gains in their businesses.

In this connection, she said, GEPA through its flagship Market Hub Project had won the Award in the category of Best Use of Information Technology at the World Trade Promotion Organisations Awards in Paris France, beating Switzerland to emerge the ultimate winner.

GEPA also won the bid to host the 2020 WTPO awards in Ghana, which is a demonstration of Ghana’s enviable position among the community of nations, she said.

 She said GEPA was currently reviewing the National Export Strategy, which was first launched in 2013, in furtherance of the strategic objective to increase the current $2.56 billion to $5.3 billion by 2021.

To be able to achieve this, Madam Asabea said GEPA had developed an export curriculum focused on helping equip businesses with the know-how required to enter markets, develop and maintain a strong position for products and services for business growth and increase export earnings.

She said owing to the importance of the Export Marketing Fundamentals programme, GEPA has plans to make the programme a pre-requisite part of the export registration processes in 2019.

 “This week’s programme should provide the avenue for you as partners and GEPA as a facilitator to contribute our quota towards a much stronger sector,” she added.

In an overview of GEPA, Mr Banda Khalifa Abdallah said the Authority was at the forefront of identifying, developing and promoting export products for the international market.

He said GEPA had helped developed many of the more than 400 export products.

The School currently awards a certificate of participation. However, plans are far advanced to start the award of diploma and advanced diploma certificates as soon as the structures and system are put in place with an approval of the National Accreditation Board.

Among the topics being treated are Export Marketing Research, Product Planning and Product Adaptation, Legal Contracts and Negotiations, Sanitary and Photosanitary Specification and Export Procedures and Documentation.

The Ghana Export School was set up by GEPA, the National Export Trade Support Institution of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) responsible for the facilitation, development and promotion of Ghanaian exports in 1987, to address the training needs of the export community.