Speaking at the 26th President’s National Awards for Export Achievement, President Mahama said the government was aware of the strategic importance of GEPA to the country’s NTE sector hence the move to provide dedicated funds from the EXIM Bank to support businesses in the export sector. 

President Mahama, whose speech was read on his behalf by Mrs Helen Mona Quartey, the Deputy Minister of Finance, commended GEPA for the awards scheme to help motivate exporters in the NTE Sector.

He asked the exporter community to enhance quality and ensure compliance to their production processes since that was the only way to maintain their competitive edge in the global export market.

Touching on the establishment of the EXIM Bank, President Mahama said it was envisaged to support the private sector to diversify and expand its supply base as well as its domestic and export markets and the entire production and export chain of high earning export products.

The EXIM Bank, he said, would provide the much-needed funds to implement the National Export Development Programme (NEDP) as it related to the eleven priority export products, including cashew, medicinal plants and processed cocoa, which had been earmarked to lead the growth and increase of the Export sector and the Non-Traditional Export (NTE) sector, respectively.

He said the overall objective of the five-year National Export Strategy was to develop the potential of the NTE sector to enable it make maximum contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and national development in order to consolidate and enhance Ghana's middle-income status, create formal decent job opportunities and ensue high standards of living for the people.

President Mahama said to further increase the production volume and export value of processed cocoa products, which continued to be the lead product in the NTE sector, government was maintaining the target of processing at least 60 per cent of cocoa beans produced in Ghana by supporting major chocolate manufacturing companies to establish and upgrade their processing plants.

Mr James Tiigah, the Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, said the annual event aimed to acknowledge and encourage as well as celebrate export excellence of companies operating in the NTE sector.

In 2015, total revenues from NTEs amounted to $2.522 billion up marginally over $2.514 billion in 2014. Mr Tiigah said although the growth was modest, there is hope that with the implementation of the National Export Strategy, export revenues would witness significant amount of growth in the next few years.

The awards, which were held on the theme: “Celebrating Export Excellence,” had companies received awards for 2014 and 2015 performances. Niche Cocoa Industry Limited emerged the Exporter of the year for both 2014 and 2015. Other award winners include UNIDO, Kingdom Exim Ghana Limited, Ghana Nuts Company and Dasoa Company Limited.