Over 500 local and foreign businesses have pitched camp at the Ho Sports Stadium for the 5th Volta Trade Fair which starts today.

The two-week fair will provide a platform for large, medium and small-scale foreign and indigenous businesses to showcase their products, services and take advantage of the gamut of opportunities to be made available.

It will also serve as a one stop shop for business support services, investment and match making sessions, among others.

It is envisaged that the move will create and promote a thriving business network and ultimately lead to local economic development for the region.

Several tents have been set up with businesses already displaying their products ranging from art works, fashion apparels, accessories, various agro products, communication devices, decoders, among others, while corporate entities, including telecommunication giant, MTN, and Interplast, among others, have also pitched camp for the fair.

The agricultural, ICT and tourism sectors of the region remain untapped, hence the committed focus in making these areas thematic to the fair, which runs from November 15 to 28, 2021.

Organised under the auspices of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC) and in partnership with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), the fair will run on the theme, “Promoting Sustainable Trade and Investment”.

Preparation

The lead up to the fair has been characterised by extraordinary preparations which included high level publicity by brand ambassadors made up of distinguished media personalities from the Volta Region.

The Chairman of the Volta/Oti Regional Chapter of AGI, Mr Dela Gadzanku, expressed optimism that the fair would engender collaborations, strengthen private sector cooperation in a bid to advance the investor-business collaboration, so as to increase the economic dividend for both.

The Regional Economic Planning Officer at the VRCC and a member of the Volta Fair planning committee, Rev. Isaac Tettey, described the strategy adopted as a game changer.

"Our publicity has been very good and as a result many people are coming. We are trying as much as possible to manage the space we have so that we can have an awesome opening ceremony," he said.

Rev. Tettey envisaged a huge turnout with a high level patronage.

"Our expectation is that we will have a good weather and a lot of people will come and patronise. We urge them to buy so that indirectly we stimulate our local economy," he said.

SMEs hopeful

Small and medium-scale enterprises participating believe they will have good returns from the event.

Exhibitors including the Centre for National Culture, Jesse LifePlus, Concept Agro Chemical, among others, have all described the platform as a huge one, which they intend to take full advantage of.

They said the business matchmaking sessions for instance would provide investment opportunities which could lead to fruitful partnerships and wider marketing and trading platforms.

Meanwhile, other exhibitors including those from the Industrial Arts and Fashion departments of the Ho Technical University said their objective for participating was to showcase work made by their students and by extension sell the university on a global scale.

Activities

Apart from exhibitions, the event will also be characterised by seminars on agribusiness, agric financing, piloting crop insurance in the Volta Region, innovation and technology with a focus on the automobile industry.

There will also be a youth pitch contest for startups in the region, facilitated by the digital innovation company, Ho Node Hub.

The Fair will be climaxed on November 28, 2021 after the massive Visit Volta Tour on November 27.