As part of efforts to support the participation of the senior national team, the Black Stars, in the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Ghana Exim Bank (GEXIM) has rolled out a campaign to promote trade and the patronage of Made-In-Ghana products dubbed, “Think Soccer, Think Trade”.
Announcing the initiative, the CEO of GEXIM, Lawrence Agyinsam, reiterated the importance of sports in promoting exports and the role of soccer in international trade.
On behalf of the board, management and staff of the bank, Agyinsam expressed his conviction that the Black Stars will qualify to the next stage and make the nation proud by flying high the flag of the country to enable the Bank to leverage on it to promote the agenda of import substitution and increasing exports.
The deputy chief executive of GEXIM responsible for Banking, Rosemary Beryl Archer said: “Think Soccer, Think Trade”, is a concept by the Bank to use sports as a tool to champion trade and promote export diversification with the aim of achieving economic transformation for jobs.”
“Without doubt, sports has the potential to increase foreign trade and promote global economic integration. Countries that engage in sports become more visible to other countries and spurs the interest of firms as well as consumers in the respective foreign market. Over the years, it has been proven that sport helps to infuse trust into cross-country business relationships on several levels,” she said.
The campaign falls in line with the bank’s mandate to assist the Government of Ghana to reposition the Ghanaian economy into an export-led one according to Archer. She encouraged producers of Made-In-Ghana products to leverage on the platform of sports and especially the ongoing world cup to promote their products.
“For us at GEXIM, it is important to encourage Ghanaians to support our SMEs with the intention of making local industries competitive. When our SMEs produce, it is important to promote them for their products to be patronised and this will lead to prosperity”, she added.
GEXIM was established in 2016 with the mandate to improve the country’s export competitiveness, foreign exchange earnings and balance of trade.
The Bank is focused primarily on raw material base development because it identifies this strategy as the key to sustain agro-processing. To this end, there is intensive advisory service as well as funding support for clients engaged in commercial farming.
Importantly, GEXIM is the main financial driver behind the government’s flagship One District, One Factory (1D1F) Initiative which seeks to accelerate Ghana’s industrialization and socio-economic development. It is anticipated that the programme will empower entrepreneurs by giving them access to the market for their output and create jobs.
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