The Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) in Wa has in collaboration with the GIZ/Agriculture Finance Consultants (AFC) Market-Oriented Agriculture Programme (MOAP) has launched a virtual platform to help market agriculture and non-agriculture products that are produced in the northern part of the country.

Christened the Made in Northern Ghana (MING) Marketplace digital platform, the application which was officially launched at Wa in the Upper West Region on Tuesday seeks to enhance access to products and services in the northern part of the country and to open them to the global market.

The Regional Manager of the GNCCI in the region, Mr. Jeremiah Tengan stated that the Chamber commissioned a research into the performance of products from the northern part of the country on the global market and identified that the goods from the north received less attention on the global market.

“Products such as smock and shea butter from the north are good but they receive very limited showcase globally and unfortunately have very poor marketing network”, he said.

He mentioned that in collaboration with GIZ, the platform was created to facilitate the buying and selling of products and also make it easier to trade with people across the globe without geographic restrictions.

He mentioned that before the official launch of the platform, the team organized a sensitization tour across the five northern regions; Upper West, Upper East, Northern, North East and Savannah Regions to create awareness of the platform.

He maintained that the platform was an opportunity to have a reliable market for their products and to open them up to the global market.

“The Development Bank of Ghana (DBG) is poised to lend loans to people in business with a maximum of five to fifteen years to redeem the debt, and this will go a long way to improve their business”, he said.

The platform, he noted sought to drive positive change and innovation in the business landscape in Ghana and help improve on the revenue of businesses in the northern part of the country.

For his part, Mr. Reuben Binpori, the Inclusive Business Development Expert with MOAP indicated that they have supported farmer groups, inputs dealers and processors to expand their vocation.

He said marketing in recent times had gone beyond interpersonal to digital where a wider audience is reached and adequate revenue is generated.

“In view of this, the digitized platform which was well thought through was introduced to help small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) to enable them sell their products by connecting them to buyers all over the world”, he added.

FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA