Ghana enjoyed a trade surplus with exports exceeding imports for the year 2021, and the country is poised to repeat that for the year 2022.

This revelation was made by the Director of Projects at the Ghana Export Promotion Authority(GEPA), Alex Dadzawa while speaking on the state of Ghana’s exports.

“So far we have done about $9 billion of total exports for the half year while we have done $7.5 billion of imports.”

He said while this is positive indication for Ghana’s export sector, his outfit is resolved to spearhead the increased promotion of Ghana’s export as a catalyst for national development.

The GEPA official disclosed that a lot of attention has been given to the development and promotion of the Cocoa Derivatives Sector with processed cocoa as the leading non-traditional export.

Similarly, he said another priority area government has paid attention to is the production and export of cashew.

According to him Ghana exported over $300 million worth of cashew in 2021 and “we could have had four times of that if we had processed and added value to the cashew.”

He said the vision in the next four years is to see significant processing and value addition in the area of cashew.

Again, the GEPA official said the automotive industry is one which Ghana intends to leverage on with the advent of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Similarly, significant attention would be given to all the 17 priority areas outlined in the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS) which include fish and fishery products, textiles and garments, sugar, industrial salt, natural rubber sheets, aluminium, plastic products and petrol chemical products.

Indeed, GEPA distributed 11 million suckers to pineapple farmers across the country in order to enable them expand and meet export demand.

The Director of Projects at GEPA added that coconut has become a burgeoning sector, where GEPA is keen on reviving the coconut sector due to the varied opportunities available.

“We are doing a lot to resuscitate the coconut sector which has had its disease problem in the past. We are increasing sensitization and we have also provided close to 700,000 coconut seedlings which are disease tolerant for the future.”

He lauded government for the 1 District 1 Factory which is intended to shore up the nation’s productive capacity to process Ghanaian raw materials into finished and semi-finished products.

Alex Dadzawa advocated for the various financial institutions to invest in these manufacturing companies so they can expand and produce more to feed the local and international market.