SMEs urged to collaborate more to deliver on large orders

By Christabel Oboshie ANNAN & Zeenatu ABUBAKAR, Accra
The Team Lead for Compete Ghana Programme, Nicolas Gebara, has advised local Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to collaborate more to deliver on large orders, rather than take up such orders on their own and fail to deliver reliably on them.
He underscored the pivotal role of increased collaboration among private sector enterprises in Ghana, in fulfilling large orders from European Union clients.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Ghana-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), Compete Ghana Programme in Accra, he urged cooperation across industries to streamline processes for meeting substantial orders within the European Union market.
Gebara also highlighted the need for enhanced access to finance, enabling companies to scale up operations and meet the growing demand for their products, thus signaling a promising trajectory for the country’s businesses in international trade.
He announced that significant progress has been made in sensitizing about 1000 companies across Ghana to align with the European Union’s (EU) requirements.
The Deputy Minister for Trade, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, lauded the stakeholders for the months of hard work, collaboration, and dedication, marking a significant milestone in efforts to promote partnership, drive economic growth, and enhance the competitiveness of the private sector in Ghana.
The Compete Ghana Programme, according to the Deputy Minister, stands as a testament to the power of partnerships between the European Union and Ghana, fostering economic growth, enhancing trade capabilities, and creating sustainable development opportunities.
She emphasized that the partnership forged between Ghanaian and European Union enterprises and investors not only facilitates knowledge and skills transfer, but also paves the way for mutually beneficial collaborations beyond the program’s conclusion.
She encouraged them to view the closing of this chapter as a new beginning, underscoring the potential for future collaborations and endeavors.
The Head of the Economic and Trade Section of the European Union (EU), Raffaele Quarto, emphasized that with the entry into force of the landmark Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and Ghana in 2016, Ghana’s duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market was legally solidified.
He underscored the agreement’s significance in ensuring the stability and legal certainty for economic operators engaged in trade between the EU and Ghana.
He emphasized that the EPA provides substantial opportunities for Ghanaian exporters.
Noting the consistent partnership, Quarto highlighted that the EU consistently stands as Ghana’s second-largest trade partner, surpassed only by China, with a trade exchange value of approximately €4.2 billion in 2022.
He further pointed out that Ghana successfully exported €2 billion worth of products to the EU while importing €2.2 billion worth of transformed goods, contributing significantly to the industrialization of the country.