Ghana’s earnings from Non-Traditional Exports (NTEs) increased by 3.1 per cent from $2.83 billion in 2018 to $2.89 billion in 2019.
This is according to recent figures from the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA).
NTEs, according to GEPA, accounted for 8.53 per cent of total exports in 2019. Ghana’s NTEs over the last five years – 2015 to 2019 – grew at an annual average rate of 2.97 per cent contributing 18 per cent to total national merchandise exports for the year under review.
The appreciation in non-traditional exports is associated with higher performance in the processed and semi- processed products sector, particularly, cocoa cake, palm oil, iron and steel products.
Sectoral performance
The manufacturing sector made significant contributions to NTEs as it accounted for 84.6 per cent of total NTEs. The performance of the subsector reflected a growth of 11.15 per cent in 2019 over the 2018 earnings.
In aggregate terms, the processed cocoa sector experienced a growth of 5.99 per cent in 2019 relative to 2018. The marginal growth in the cocoa sector was due to high demand coupled with high futures market price for cocoa butter and cake.
These were supported by availability of more local cocoa beans to manufacturers, in addition to COCOBOD’s policy that allowed the manufacturers to import cocoa beans to complement their local stock.
The Agricultural sector however dipped in performance, recording 14.84 per cent of the total exports. It recorded a 27.21 per cent reduction in its performance from 2018, affecting its total contribution to NTE’s growth in 2019.
Cashew nut was the top earner of all agricultural produce in 2019. However its performance reduced by 37.1 per cent over the 2018 performance and contributed 55.29 per cent to the total sub-sector earnings.
Flowers was the lowest earner in the first ten category, contributing about 0.80 per cent to total subsector earnings and posed a growth of 40.64 per cent over its 2018 earnings. Compared with 12.82 per cent the previous year, industrial art & craft also accounted for 0.50 per cent of total NTEs.
Exports destinations
NTE products in terms of destination were exported to 155 countries. The Netherlands was the leading country with total imports of $381 million. Followed by neighbouring Burkina Faso and Togo in the second and third place respectively.
France, India, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Vietnam and Senegal completed the top 10 destinations of NTEs from Ghana.
The EU market was the leading destination, contributing to 38.18 per cent of the total market by absorbing $1.11 billion value of NTEs. This market value, however, reduced by 3.43 per cent relative to 2018’s performance.
NTEs to ECOWAS was $836.5 million dollars, an increase of 12.79 per cent from the previous year.
Services exports
In 2019, GEPA made significant strides in services export in the area of Education, Medical Services and Information Technology.
On Medical Services export for instance, GEPA opened talks with Barbados which resulted in about 95 nurses being exported to the Caribbean to work for two years. The nurses comprised 49 women and 46 men.
GEPA also for the year under review, sponsored and coordinated the participation of 11 higher institutions of learning in a students recruitment drive in three cities in Nigeria – Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja.
