GhanaMade Company Limited, a leading private company that focuses on promoting and marketing locally produced rice and other made in Ghana products, has been presented with a certificate by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) for its role in the promotion of made-in-Ghana products at the recently AGI Awards ceremony held in Accra.

The AGI Awards is a national event aimed at recognizing industries that have distinguished themselves in their respective sectors.

Receiving the certificate, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GhanaMade, Mrs Comfort Aniagyei noted that her company is extremely happy to have been recognized by the AGI.

“For us as a company we are delighted to note that our performance over the last five years since our establishment has caught the attention of the AGI. This has really come to us as a pleasant surprise and I must say that this will further spur us to do a lot more in marketing and promoting made-in-Ghana products,” Mrs Aniagyei remarked.

Giving a brief background about her company, GhanaMade, the CEO said the company was born to help Ghana achieve total economic emancipation given that Ghana has attained political emancipation. She continued that in line with ensuring that the company’s visions are achieved, she has opened 15 outlets currently in two regions and quickly added that plans are far advanced to open more in other parts of the country.

According to her, GhanaMade braved the storm when everything Ghanaian was held in low esteem by many of our citizenry; when use of foreign goods and services was the order of the day for sophistication and accomplishment.

She pointed out that her believe in Ghana and the true African compelled her to launch the crusade to re-ignite passion and demand for made in Ghana products.

GhanaMade, she stated, started its works quietly in the rural communities where the company engaged local farmers who still rely mainly on rain-fed agriculture and farming implements that pre-date independence. She explained that these farmers labour to produce rice which is spurned by their own kith and kin in preference for imported rice from the US, Thailand, etc.

“Until the emergence of GhanaMade, these farmers’ most pressing issues were in two folds; micro-financing to pay for production cost and also, lucrative outlets to market their produce. We at GhanaMade over the years have not only made available micro-finance to them to pay for their production cost but also have provided platforms for the promotion and marketing of their produce in all the company’s outlets in both Greater Accra and Eastern regions” Mrs Aniagyei commented.

Speaking about the benefits of promoting made-in-Ghana products, the GhanaMade CEO mentioned that it will help create sustainable jobs for the teeming youth as well as to help the country attain national pride and by so doing the company would have succeeded in achieving its vision of helping Ghana achieve economic emancipation.

She was particularly happy that the company’s brands of locally produce rice, Oman Ba fragrant rice, Red Star, Odeneho Brown and Northern Star Parboiled rice and other made-in-Ghana products have defied all odds and are currently doing well on the market.

The GhanaMade CEO appealed to government to continue to fashion out the implementation processes which will help Ghana industrialized. She congratulated producers of the various locally manufactured products sold in all her company’s outlets and other shops for braving the odds to come out with high quality made-in Ghana products which are currently being patronized by a lot of Ghanaians.

“I want to passionately appeal to Ghanaians both home and abroad and other Africans in particular and friends of Africa to continue to patronize Ghanaian locally manufactured products for therein lies the salvage of Africa,” she stated.

Nana Owusu Afari, immediate past president of AGI, commended GhanaMade for its role in the promotion of local products and added that the certificate presented to the company was a deserved one.

According to him, if today, demand and production of local rice and other local products have seen a significant increase and awareness of the need to patronize made-in-Ghana products has become fashionable; and if AGI is making buying made-in-Ghana goods a clarion call, it is thanks to people like Mrs. Comfort Aniagyei and GhanaMade who worked assiduously to make this vision a living reality.