The first ever online business fair that will
enable local and international customers and investors to transact business across the computer, the phone and other Internet enabled devices, begins from March 2 to 16, 2011 in Ghana.
Christened Ghana Sales Fair and developed by Web and Soft Limited, a local software company, the fair expects to host over four million Ghanaian customers and more than 700 million international participants through
electronic campaigns on major websites and search engines including Google company and Cable Network News (CNN).
Launching its official website name, www.ghanasalesfair.com, for the March fair on Tuesday in Accra, Mr Philip Gamey, the Chief Executive Officer of Web and Soft, said the mission was to enable businesses to deliver the
best business to customers on their terms.
Only registered businesses in Ghana will be allowed to feature on the website, where they will have their products and services exhibited with their prices.
Customers anywhere and at anytime, he said, could "join the fair with their lap tops, cell phones, or their iPads.
"We found opportunities to deplore exhibitions to the web and make it available to local and international customers and investors at any place and anytime and make them very, very simple to use."
The fair, Mr Gamey explained was a major part of a broad strategy to ensure that Ghana was not left behind in information technology advancements worldwide.
Mr Johnson Adasi, a Director in charge of Industry and Small Scale Enterprises at the Trade and Industry Ministry, who launched the website on behalf of the Minister, lauded the initiative and said it would help to promote businesses and also attract investors to Ghana.
He said the current trade policy had given much prominence to ICT and the need for local businesses to embrace the use of Internet to facilitate their trades and services in the country.
Mr Adasi noted that because most businesses relied very little on the Internet and or had limited knowledge in what the facility could do in terms of business promotion, opportunities and sales, the country could not utilised the full potential of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) introduced by the US for African businesses.