Unilever Ghana has indicated plans to explore the West African market this year. The consumer goods company has been exporting products to Nigeria but now intends to extend it to new markets in the sub-region. Speaking to Joy Business at the company’s Annual General Meeting, Managing Director, David Mureithi said the company will focus on reducing costs to make the export drive a success. Traditionally our main export market has been Nigeria. In the last year we have added Togo and Benin and we are now looking to add Burkina Faso, Mail and Niger. One of the reasons we have not exported as much in the past is because we have not been as competitive as we would like to be” he said. “We would continue to invest in reducing our operating cost and therefore making ourselves more competitive and the volume of exports will really depend on how competitive our export prices are” he noted. The company in 2011 saw an increase of 43 percent in its Profit After Tax to record 27.4 million cedis. Each shareholders is to receive a dividend of 48 pesewas per share.