The Eastern, Volta and Oti Regional branches of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) have launched an E-Commerce Portal to help boost the sale of members' products and services.

The platform is aimed at preparing members for the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and make them more competitive on the international market.

The launch was done via Zoom on the theme: "Accelerating the Growth of MSMEs in the Eastern, Volta and Oti Regions through an enhanced E-Commerce Platform".

The initiative is a partnership between the regional branches of AGI and Logic Go Company limited, a digital and financial online service provider.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour, addressing participants, said it was believed that Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) contributed about 70 per cent of Ghana Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a key factor in job creation and revenue generation.
He said government had allocated GhC600 million as a stimulus package for SMEs.

Mr Darfour said electronic commerce was the key for enterprises' competitiveness in the informational era, ensuring access to new market segments, increasing the speed of developing business, flexibility of commercial policies, decreasing the provisioning, sale and advertising costs and simplifying the procedures.

He said the coronavirus outbreak had highlighted the importance of digital technologies resulting in a spike in online purchases and demand for a wide range of digital services.

Mr Darfour said that had come at a time when African countries were preparing their businesses for the AfCFTA.
He commended the AGI for introducing and adopting such an initiative as the COVID-19 had triggered an unprecedented demand for digital innovation solutions and encouraged members to position their businesses for the smooth take-off of the AfCFTA.

Mr Kofi Addo, the Deputy Chief Commercial Officer and Head of the One District One Factory at the Ministry of Trade and Industries, said the recent pandemic, though had a devastating effect on the world economy and every aspect of life, had also unearthed innovations and talents in the local markets.

"This is the time to inspire home grown businesses to expand in their activities, because most of the MSMEs are producing organic products, which have premium prices on the world market and there is the need to encourage them to weather the storm and look beyond Covid-19."

Mr Dela Gadzanku, the Chairman of the Eastern, Volta and Oti Regional branches of the AGI, said the timely solution presented a vast opportunity for many small and medium scale businesses to showcase, promote and sell their products everywhere on the globe.

He said it was essential to emphasise that the enterprises enlisted on the Platform would have to pay attention to the quality, packaging and overall branding of their products to avoid any negative complaint from customers.

Mr Edem Yidan of Logic Go Limited said the platform would have an online advertisement, electronic commerce, digital marketing and sales as well as an electronic payment system.
]A special store had also been created where COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment were sold to the public, he added.