Lawrence Agyinsam
STAKEHOLDERS
COMPRISING players in the private sector, policy makers and representatives
from government agencies in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have
adjudged “Tuesday Market” by the Ghana Export-Import Bank (GEXIM) as the best
SME Development Initiative.
Commending
the GEXIM for using the “Tuesday Market” platform to create awareness for
Made-In-Ghana products and harnessing their potential for exports, most
stakeholders advocated the building of capacities of small and medium-sized
enterprises to improve their standards to enable them compete on the global
market.
Elaborating
on the motive for the initiative, Lawrence Agyinsam, Chief
Executive Officer of the Ghana Export-Import
Bank indicated that the “Tuesday Market” project was positioned to showcase the
businesses and also serve as a revenue generation platform.
“The Tuesday Market is a novelty from GEXIM Bank to showcase the SMEs
we are financing. For Ghana to become an export led economy, we think the SMEs
hold the future of the country. It is therefore important to let the populace
know how creative our SMEs are and the need to know what they are doing and
patronize them,” he added.
Commenting of
the “Tuesday Market”, Rosemary Archer, Head, International Co-operation of GEXIM
Bank who is directly responsible for the initiative said “among other things, this unique platform is
to help SMEs to be able to add value to their products. We want to offer a
platform to champion the adoption of the right packaging, appropriate branding
and the requisite marketing needed by the small and medium-sized enterprises to
scale up to the next level.”
Held once a
month, GEXIM organized seven editions of the “Tuesday Market” in 2019, with
almost 200 businesses in participation. It was an opportunity for the
businesses to showcase their well packaged products for the export market,
improve their network as well as receive financial and advisory support.