This according to her translated into about $447million in terms of additional revenue from export.

Dr Asare who was taken her turn at the Sunday edition of the Min­ister’s biweekly briefings organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra said the growth of top NTEs between 2022 and 2023 was about 78 per cent with the total ex­port destinations coming to about 156 countries.

She said this was the first time that the NTE of the country had actually grown and grown expo­nentially describing the feat as unprecedented in the history of the authority.

“As I’m talking to you, we have grown exports. For 2023, we grew exports to 11.75 per cent and contribution to the overall national export is about 24 per cent and this has been brought about by a number of interventions,” she emphasised.

Dr Asare said GEPA was fo­cused on four major sectors includ­ing agribusiness, manufacturing, arts and crafts, and services, adding that “There was a time when we particularly didn’t focus on ser­vices, but for some years now, it’s become one of our exports.”

She said GEPA had over 3,000 registered exporters and over 400 different non-traditional export products.

Some of the agencies her outfit was in collaboration in achieving the recent success were the Ghana Export-Import Bank, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Ghana Enterprises Agency, the Ghana Free Zones Authority, and some private organisations like the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), and the Federation of Asso­ciation of Ghanaian Exporters.

“All of these organisations are working with GEPA hand-in-hand to grow the exports of the country. The number one NTE earner, that is the non-traditional export earner, the highest earner comes from iron, steel circles, iron rods, and sheet billets,” she said.

Dr Asare said even though the country had about 625 exportable products as part of the national export development strategy, 17 of these products had been priori­tised.

She said the GEPA Impact Hub which had been established was a one-stop home for everything needed, be it information, technol­ogy, understanding how to export or meeting the organisations that collaborated with GEPA like the Standards Authority, the Food and Drugs Authority, or the Ministry of Agriculture.

“If you come to the GEPA Market Hub, you will meet all of these organisations there, as well as the support we give you by way of information,” she said.

She said GEPA had established a library, stressing we have an IT resource centre for you to use to achieve all that you want to achieve, and that is the GEPA Impact Hub.”