The Ghana Export Promotion Authority has indicated plans to make Ashanti Region an export power house.

The initiative involves identifying new products with significant export potentials in the districts of the region.

Deputy Manager of the Authority, Eric Twum Boafo, has admonished government to avoid over-reliance on oil at the expense of non-traditional exports.

He said this at a sensitisation conference on ‘One District One Export Product’ for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Ashanti Region.

“We must bear in mind and take the necessary precautions not to go on the path of a state that has neglected other sectors after discovering oil. Non-traditional exports provide more jobs and security than oil will ever do and the caution is to move away from the proverbial Dutch Disease,” he said.

He revealed the key tenets of the Ghana Export Strategy Document as comprising the identification, development and promotion of at least one exportable product per district.

“It should seriously dovetail into government’s initiative, the One District One Factory system, which will basically be an opportunity for us to resource the various factories that will come under the One District One Factory industrialisation concept,” Mr Boafo said.

The conference is part of a nationwide consultation to solicit inputs for execution to complement the district industrialisation concept.

Four regions in the northern part of Ghana are targeted in the second phase of workshops after the first phase which covered six regions.

Mr. Twum Boafo says the authority will strengthen regional offices to ensure effective trade facilitation.

“Our vision is to establish regional offices district representatives who will see to the full implementations of the One Export One Product concept. We are looking forward to strengthening our presence in this region to be able to unearth the full potentials of the Ashanti Region,” he revealed.

Officials of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority say the institution is poised to perform its critical function in the export value chain.

It plans to achieve a target of $10 billion value in the next four years through the full implementation of the initiative across the project implementation areas of the country.

The consultation conference in Kumasi engaged MMDCEs to select a product or service with immense export potential from their respective districts.

“This region is blessed with immense potentials for agribusiness, services and related export value chain. This region is known for its land and forest resources, this will challenge us to do everything within our force to change and transform this region into an export power house”, Mr. Twum Boafo added.