President John Dramani Mahama has demonstrated his call on Ghanaians to patronize made in Ghana products by flaunting a pair of locally made shoes he was wearing to Members of Parliament.
Delivering his State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Tuesday, the president bemoaned the lack of appreciation of made-in-Ghana goods and the over-reliance on foreign imports.
According to him, local investors in the country should be assisted to produce locally-manufactured products on a large scale in order to halt the practice of Ghanaians depend on imports from outside the country.
To buttress why the country needs to limit its dependence on foreign products, President Mahama disclosed that the country expended 1.5 billion dollars in foreign currency on the importation of consumables such as rice, sugar, cooking oil, tomato and fish; monies “which could have gone into the pockets of Ghanaian entrepreneurs”.
“If this money had been retained and spent in Ghana it would have gone into the pockets of Ghanaian entrepreneurs which would subsequently remain here to boost the economy,” he said.
As if on cue, President Mahama demonstrated by example, the need to purchase Ghanaian made products, and nearly dared to remove his footwear which he indicated was made by Topman Shoes to Parliamentarians.
He revealed that beginning this year, a campaign for Made-In-Ghana goods will be launched to help promote Ghanaian products. He further noted that he has requested the board and management of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to encourage the local manufacture of electrical products such as cable, transformers and meters by purchasing from local producers who meet their quality standard.
“Mr Speaker, we will this year launch a broad campaign to encourage Ghanaians to buy made in Ghana goods. Any import items we buy as Ghanaians constitute an export of jobs in this country especially in respect of the items for which we have comparative advantage to produce,” President Mahama noted.