Craftsmen and women schooled to compete on the international market

Accra, The National Commission on Culture (NCC) on Friday organised a capacity building seminar for some selected craftsmen and women in Accra to increase their readiness to compete with the international market.

The training, which formed part of this year’s ‘Zongofest’. Caterers, was attended by make-up artists, fashion designers, bead and bracelets makers as well as Kente weavers in the Zongo communities.

Mrs Alice Alima Kala, Acting Director of the National Commission on Culture, said the workshop was essential for the sensitisation of the participants to increase their sales through the exportation of their produce.

Mrs Kala explained that the ZongoFest had the aim of unleashing the potentials of the people in Zongo as well as erasing the perception that Zongos were hubs for indiscipline.

Facilitating the workshop, Mrs Theodora Froko, Head of Handicraft Department at the Ghana Export Promotion Authority urged participants to actively, seek knowledge to improve on what they do with and be abreast with the current trend of customer taste for their produce and maximise profit.

If you don’t learn from what is trending in the world, you will eventually fade out, Mrs Froko noted.

She said that export was an extension of local business saying, Before going into other countries, you must be knowledgeable about your targets and understand the market.

Mrs Froko indicated that the country’s biggest problem was bad attitude towards activities which had been translated to the work force, adding that it had negative effects on the image on business transactions with other nationals.

She enlightened participants on the need to establish trade links and develop positive attitude towards their work showing them the myriad of opportunities available outside the shores of the country.

Mrs Froko urged workers to treat all people in the market place with respect since their relationship with clients would either encourage or discourage them from coming back to do business with them.

She said for anyone to be successful in business, there must be the need to identify and know the targeted market or customers and ensure their satisfaction.

Once you are in the creative industry, the first thing is to know your client and design your products around them.

Ms Peace Kwablah, a make-up artist and a participant expressed her excitement about the workshop to the Ghana News Agency, saying that, she was now equipped with skills on how to expand her business.

Ms Afia Twumasi, a vendor of ‘peanut cake’ said she was now educated on how to package her products to attract buyers and the strategies to adopt in selling to the international market.

She reiterated the need to be self-disciplined and be polite especially in attending to customers.

An inventor of Frindosoccer game, Mr John Frimpong-Manso showcased a design of his locally made soccer product at the workshop where he said was gaining much attention in countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh and India.

Mr Frimpong-Manso stressed on how this game could help students at the High school in solving questions on probability and answering quiz questions on mathematics.

Source: Ghana News Agency