The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has urged the public to support the local handicraft sector by patronising their goods.

Speaking at an exhibition in Accra, the Acting Head, Handicraft and Industrial Art Department, GEPA, Ms Nelly Spio-Abaidoo, said this would help boost the country’s local industries and the economy as a whole.

She said Ghanaian handicrafts were of high quality and could compete favourably on the international market, hence the need for the country to support their own.

Ms Spio-Abaidoo said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic at an arts and crafts exhibition which was organised by the Accra Arts and Craft Market Exhibition, in collaboration with the GEPA.

The exhibition saw over 40 exhibitors, was organised to help local artisans develop and increase patronage of their products.

"We see this exhibition as a product development one and looking forward to the artisans receiving feedbacks on their products," she said.

Mrs Spio-Abaidoo said the exercise was a way of building the capacities of the vendors to market their products to buyers, saying so far it had brought more people, including expatriates to patronise the products.

She said the expectation was for the artisans to get local markets and identify some unique products from among them for international exhibitions.

Read: GEPA to establish arts and craft school

Showcasing products

Mrs Spio-Abaidoo urged the artisans to use the opportunity to showcase their products to the local market, as well as explore other opportunities on the continent.

She said COVID-19 had taught many organisations to look within their countries and trade among themselves, urging the artisans to take advantage of online platforms to market their products to the world.

"We are making the exhibition a monthly programme and calling on all artisans to come on board and register with the Authority to reach out to the customers".

Read: Make useable products to meet demand – GEPA

Increasing awareness

The Manager, Accra Arts and Crafts Market Exhibition, Mr Adnan Mohammed, for his part, said the exhibition which has been running for four years now has been very successful.

He said the artisans had through the exhibition secured huge orders, which kept growing.

Read: GEPA supports SMEs to adopt green business practices
He called on the government to continue to create the enabling environment for the artisans to compete globally and urged vendors to be creative in product development to attract patrons.