Traders and local manufacturers cry for Government intervention
The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has embarked on an outreach program with local industries in a bid to promote patronage of Made-In-Ghana products.
As part of this nationwide exercise, GUTA within the week visited Avnash Industries in Tema, to observe first-hand the various product lines of the company and how they are manufactured.
The visit was also used to ascertain the challenges the company is presently encountering and how the manufacturer and trading association can forge stronger ties to ameliorate these challenges and boost business.
Avnash is an agro-based processing company operating in the country since 2001 serving the Ghanaian market and other West African countries. Producers of Royal Farmers Rice, Golden Drop Oil, Oly Soap among others, Avnash has gained expertise in edible oil production, soap saponification and parboiled rice production.
Despite the fact that the company boasts of one of the biggest rice processing factories in West Africa, Avnash like, other local manufacturers, laments of high cost of doing business in Ghana making it difficult to stay competitive. Imported rice for example presently costs 22% less than what is manufactured locally. Vipul Jain is the Chief Operating Officer of Avnash Industries Ghana Ltd.
“Now we are uncompetitive because Malaysian oil is cheaper than ours that is the reason why every country is doing same. Benin has done in the past, Sierra Leone has done in the past and Senegal has done now so we beg the government that they should provide incentives that will reduce the cost of doing business. Today in Ghana, the product is from Ivory Coast and Togo because they can bring without duty to Ghana. Whereas, in other countries we are faced with this barrier of extra taxes,” he bemoaned.
The GUTA President, Dr. Joseph Obeng, said as a matter of urgency, government should develop policies that will support local manufacturers and their downstream partners to trade effectively and efficiently.
“What we have seen here means that they are producing under capacity. Why is it so? Because the enabling environment is simply not there for them and it not the making of the trader that this enabling environment is not there. Government needs make deliberate effort to make sure that they are reviving the dying industries as we have seen in this company. A company that used to employ about 1,000 employees are now employing about 200.”
