Ghanaian-made products shine as 2024 Grand Sales opens in Kumasi

The Kumasi Rattray Park has been transformed into a vibrant marketplace, showcasing an impressive array of high-quality Ghanaian-made products and services at the 2024 Grand Sales Fair.

Organised by the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited, the event, which commenced on Thursday (19 September), will continue through the weekend and end on Monday (23 September).

The fair has attracted a variety of businesses, featuring local products such as clothing, cosmetics, soaps, shoes, vegetable oils, medications, and uniquely packaged food items, all beautifully displayed.

Attendees have been captivated by how traditional materials like fugu, batik tie-dye fabrics, and beads have been incorporated into fashion and home décor, offering a blend of indigenous culture with an international appeal.

This year’s exhibition has also prominently featured green businesses that are recycling plastic and waste fabric into usable products, showcasing the innovative efforts of Ghanaian entrepreneurs committed to sustainable and eco-friendly practices.

In a media briefing, Dr. Agnes Adu, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Trade Fair Company Ltd., emphasized that the fair is primarily designed to promote Ghanaian businesses while also providing an opportunity for entrepreneurs to clear their stock ahead of the Christmas season.

Dr Adu praised indigenous Ghanaian businesses for their impressive quality in finishing, packaging, and labeling, making their products competitive with imports from developed countries.

“In the past ten years, you can see Ghanaian products have seen significant development in their packaging. This government has been very deliberate in its focus on industrialisation and boosting local production as a key strategy for national development.”

“As you walk around, you’ll see that our packaging for food items and nuts is on par with that of imported products. We are even assembling cars right here in Ghana. There’s always room for improvement, but we are making strides,” she stated.

She indicated that her outfit has explored a myriad of avenues working with other state institutions like the Ghana Standard Authority and the Food and Drugs Authority, to expose Ghanaian businesses to international trends of packaging and manufacturing through special training initiatives, local and international fairs.

Dr Agnes Adu challenged Ghanaians to prioritize purchasing Ghanaian products over any other imported product as a lifestyle and not just a ‘buy made in Ghana tag’.

She insisted that deliberately choosing to patronize locally-made products is the only means citizens could support local businesses survive and expand to create the needed value and jobs.

Exhibitors from far and near expressed satisfaction with the smoothness of registration and the assistance they received from organizers to set up and settle in.

A seller at the smocks stands Anas Atibila, who arrived from the Upper East Region a day earlier was hopeful his merchandize will be bought to enable him to support some 15 groups of weavers who rely on such sales for their livelihoods.

“I supply the weavers with materials and funds to produce these smocks so when I sell, they get money to take care of themselves, pay their children’s school fees and other things,” he said.

The head of recruitment and senior assistant registrar of the Ghana Telecom University, Joseph Adane applauded the organisers for giving ample spaces to universities like his own which focuses heavily on engineering, technology and digital skills; course areas that have become inevitable to all sectors of industry.

“They are doing very well especially since we came yesterday to set up. The public that are trooping in here is also encouraging,” he noted.

CEO of Akaal Skills Development Academy, Braimah Hawah whose institute had set up to introduce courses in fashion designing, plumbing and electrical skills training admonished exhibitors to take such opportunities to create business networks and to build beneficial business synergies beyond expecting a huge swell of numbers.

“For us, it is not just about the numbers. The world of business is now about teamwork and collaborations and that is the most important thing to us,” she indicated.

Aside from exhibiting, buying and selling, the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited outlined a series of interactive and engaging side attractions including a cooking competition sponsored by Wilmar Africa Ltd producers of Frytol Cooking Oil, Fortune Rice premium brands of margarines and detergents.

Another prime sponsor is Nutrifoods-Ghana-Limited producer of Tasty Tom tomato pastes and spices. A blood donation exercise will also come off as part of efforts to stock the blood bank of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

Reporting By Belinda Baaba Baidoo, Asaase Newsroom, Kumasi

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