The government is to restructure the GNPA Limited, previously known as Ghana National Procurement Agency, as a national trading house in order to stabilise commodity prices. The move is to ensure stable commodity prices and ensure food security by providing ready and affordable market for the country’s smallholder farmers. The Minister of Trade and Industry (MOTI), Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said that would also help the GNPA Limited to take advantage of new opportunities, such as the school feeding programme in order to make particular foods available to support the educational institutions. Established in 1976 by SMCD 55 and incorporated under the companies code in 1995, the agency was then mandated to import essential commodities for sale to Ghanaians at affordable prices, procure goods for ministries, departments and agencies and to hold buffer stock for national food security. Mr Iddrisu, who is also the Member of Parliament for Tamale North, said reminiscing the success and achievements of the GNPA, its sad relapse into poor performance, associated with debilitating debt, was certainly very worrying. “The new policy directive of the ministry, looking at your future, is to position GNPA as a social enterprise because it cannot stand the competitiveness of a liberalised economy. But there is still a critical vacuum you can fill within the distribution and market chain of our economy,” he said The acting Chief Executive Officer of the GNPA Limited, Mr Douglas Y. Kumasi, said the GNPA’s mission was to use trade as an instrument to contribute to the achievement of socio-economic development through poverty reduction. He said management had drawn up a three-year strategic business plan to serve as a road map to reposition GNPA Ltd to play its key role in the economy, adding “The development of the export sector can change the fortunes of GNPA, contribute to increased foreign exchange and improve rural incomes.” He appealed to the government to put up a case so that the Export Development and Agricultural Development and Investment Fund (EDAIF) support the GNPA Limited to regularise the exports of products such as cashew nuts and shea nuts in order to derive foreign exchange.