Graphic wins Ghana Made award
Twenty-six local companies, including the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), were last Friday honoured for their consistency in producing quality products for the market.
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At the second edition of the Ghana Made Awards held in Accra, the Daily Graphic, the flagship newspaper of the GCGL, was adjudged the Newspaper of the Year 2014 for its outstanding quality printing and nationwide circulation, while Frytol Vegetable Cooking Oil, a product of Wilmar Africa Limited, was adjudged the Overall Best Ghana Made Product of the Year.
The event, organised by the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Ghana (EFG), was held under the auspices of the ministries of Trade and Industry and Finance and the Ghana Investments Promotion Centre (GIPC).
Held on the theme, “Industrialisation, the key strategy to accelerated economic development and job creation”, the event was designed to celebrate distinguished local companies and products.
It was also to expose locally manufactured products to the local market by promoting and creating awareness of them and help build product loyalty.
Other awards
Other awards were Electrical Product of the Year, which was won by Prefos Limited, producers of Prefos Street Light; Distribution Outlet of the Year, Fio Enterprises Limited; Retail Outlet of the Year, Melcom Group of Companies; Lifetime Product of the Year, Tres-Orix Forte Syrup by the Kama Group of Companies, and Indigenous Product of the Year, Tama Shea Butter Soap and Body Cream, produced by Sekaf Ghana Ltd.
Ruut Extra Premium Beer, produced by Guinness Breweries Ghana Limited, was adjudged the Emerging Product of the Year, while the award for the Innovative Product of the Year and Building Construction Product of the Year, respectively, went to Vinymat insecticide and acaricide paint, produced by M&K Ghana Limited.
The Pharmaceutical Product of the Year was Auntie Mary’s Gripe Mixture, produced by Ernest Chemists; Herbal Products of the Year, Joy Ointment & Joy Soap, made by Joy Industries; Rubber and Plastics Product of the Year, Sintex Water Tank by Sintex Container Industry Ltd; Alcoholic Product of the Year, Kasapreko Alomo Bitters by Kasapreko Company Ltd, and Spring Mattress of the Year, Prestige Pocketed Spring Mattress, produced by Latex Foam Rubber Ghana Ltd.
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Buy local products
Addressing participants in the ceremony, a Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Ricketts Hagan, urged Ghanaians to change their attitude towards the consumption of local products to help create more jobs and strengthen the local currency.
He said such a change was essential for transforming the economy, stressing that “patronising local goods will create jobs for the growing youth, result in industrial expansion and enable local industries to compete with their foreign counterparts”.
Mr Hagan said the ministry, as part of efforts to support locally manufactured products, had developed a web-based products gallery for Ghanaian manufacturers, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), to exhibit their products.
To date, he said, more than 5,000 products from 700 manufacturers and 86 service providers were exhibiting on the portal that had both local and international reach.
For her part, a Deputy Minister of Finance, Ms Mona Helen Quartey, said marketing failures in the country were caused by ignorance and underestimation of consumer motivation, perception and behaviour at the marketplace by most entrepreneurs.
She said there was, therefore, the need for manufacturers to examine the factors that influenced consumer buying decisions with a view to finding out what accounted for the Ghanaian consumers’ preference for foreign products.
Excessive importation worrying
Ms Quartey said despite the country’s trade deficit narrowing significantly to $156.6 million from January to May this year, compared with the deficit of $990 million in the corresponding period of 2013, continued reliance on imports was worrying.
“Excessive importation heightens the country’s bills, increases demands and inflates exchange rates of the international trading currencies, causing uncontrollable price rise of goods and services and also creating hardships and poverty for people in our country,” she said.
She, therefore, advised industry players to find ways to support one another by buying local products.