The Ghana Made Awards seek to reward Ghanaian-made products from small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and also expose those products to domestic and international markets.
Sam Ato Gaisie, founder and president of Entrepreneurs Foundation Ghana, said the key objective of the award is to provide the platform for Ghanaian consumers to patronize Ghana-made products, create awareness, loyalty, recognition and prestige for Ghana-made products.
He said it also aims to encourage Ghanaian industries to make significant improvements in product excellence, innovation and quality to meet the challenges of domestic and international markets.
Gaisie said the awards would be held annually to offer opportunity to the manufacturing industries to gain a competitive advantage by having their products recognized on a prominent and far-reaching scale.
Speaking on the theme “Industrialization, the key Strategy for Accelerated Economic Development and Job Creation,” Monah Helen Kortey, deputy minister of finance, urged Ghanaians to patronize locally made goods to help create more employment and grow the economy.
“Patronizing Ghanaian-made products will ensure keeping our family members employed thereby contributing to the economic development of our dear nation Ghana,” she said. She described as worrisome the situation where the country’s export is far less than import.
“Excessive importation heightens the country’s bills, increases demand and inflates exchange rates of the international trading currencies, thereby causing uncontrollable price hikes of goods and services and also creates hardships and poverty for the people,” she said.
She, therefore, urged Ghanaians to positively respond to the Made in Ghana Campaign by President John Dramani Mahama to patronize locally made goods.
Kweku Ricketts Hagan, deputy minister of trade and industry, commended the award winners for their exemplary works.
He bemoaned the situation where most Ghanaians have developed a taste for foreign products, while neglecting locally manufactured goods.
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