The Centre for Policy Development (CPD) in collaboration with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) and the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC), has launched the Northern Trade, Industry, and Investment Summit at Tamale on Tuesday 20th December, 2022.

The Executive Director for the Centre for Policy Development, Ismail Yawuza, disclosed that the event will take place from March 14, 2023, to March 18, 2023 in Tamale on the theme, “Improving Trade and Industry in Northern Ghana Through Capacity-Building and Investment”. He indicated that the event will comprise of a trade fair, business summit, and an awards night to award businesses.

Mr. Ismail Yahuza disclosed that "the summit is part of efforts by collaborating institutions to identify and empower the private sector, particularly MSMEs, for capacity-building, production expansion, export promotion, industry promotion, and value addition to non-traditional export product to accelerate economic development, create employment and improve the livelihood of the people in northern Ghana"

Mr. Yahuza added that "in a dispensation where the continent of Africa is seeking to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments through the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), it is imperative for all key stakeholders to strategise to ensure that the northern part of Ghana is not left out in this worthy economic development movement. He was optimistic that the trade fair will create jobs as well as help improve livelihoods in the northern part of Ghana".

The launch was to send a signal to all businesses and business support organisations, both public and private to join forces with the Centre for Policy Development to ensure that NTIIS 2023 is successful and the maximum benefits derived therefrom. Mr. Yawuza called on stakeholders in the five regions of the North to ensure that the summit, which could close the gap between the Northern and southern Ghana, is successful.

The Northern Regional Minister, Alhassan Shani Shaibu at the lunch , said the summit is aimed at providing a platform for entrepreneurs and the business community not only to showcase their products and wares, but also to provide them with the unique opportunity to interact with each other and be able to build consensus on innovative ideas with the objective of achieving an improved business environment in the northern regions.

According to him, the maiden Trade and Tourism Fair will harness the full potential of the northern regions as well as provide appropriate knowledge, ideas and foresight for enterprises for the development of the region. “It is an undeniable fact that the regions are blessed with abundant natural and agricultural resources which when enhanced would position it as an industrial and tourism hub". "The Summit will provide us with the unique platform to harness all available opportunities to effectively and efficiently maximize the huge potential of our trade and industries to meet the socio-economic development of northern Ghana in particular and the nation as a whole,” he said.

The Minister noted that the existence of thriving businesses hold the key to the socio-economic transformation and development of northern Ghana and that enterprises whether small or big, create jobs for people, facilitate income generation, reduce poverty and promote sustainable growth. “Indeed, we recognize and appreciate the strategic importance of entrepreneurs as driving forces with the potential to mobilize resources towards the total expansion of the economy which would lead to an increase in tax revenue for the State. It would also enhance the creation of more jobs, a higher GDP, increase in per capita income and above all, an improvement in the standard of living of our people.”

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Dr. Afua Asabea Asare stated that an essential part of GEPA's mandate to develop and promote Ghana’s non-traditional exports "is to assist export-oriented small and medium enterprises to fully understand the opportunities that are available on the export market and to build their capacities to take advantage thereof to increase the exports of their products or to start exporting". It is for that reason the GEPA sees the organisation of the Northern Trade, Industry and Investment Summit as a welcome entitative by the Centre for Policy Development and hence the decision of her outfit to collaborate to ensure the event is successful.

Dr. Afua Asabea Asarere emphasised the importance that Ghana Export Promotion Authority attaches to product quality and the adherence to standards and market requirements. She indicated that as a trade promotion agency of government, it is in the utmost interest of GEPA to ensure that products and services of SMEs meet the quality standards so that they can be aggressively promoted on the global markets".

She urged all small scale enterprises working in the northern part of Ghana to work with government mandated agencies such as the Ghana Standards Authority , Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Enterprise Agency among others for the required guidance and assistance.

In a speech read on her behalf, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA), Mrs. Kosi Antwiwaa Yankey-Ayeh lauded the NTIIS initiative and said it complements government's efforts to support businesses to expand their operations and crate jobs. She affirmed that "the Ghana Enterprise Agency, as an apex body of government under the ministry of trade and industry mandated to strengthen and develop micro, small and medium enterprises in Ghana, is strategically aligned with the Centre for Policy Development to give a platform to micro, small and medium enterprises to network, share information and form linkages to their mutual benefits.