The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) have inaugurated new Upper West Regional Council and Executive Committee members to strengthen the chamber’s involvement in private sector development.

The Executive Committee members included Mr Bennin Justice as the Chairman, Alhaji Iddrisu Salford, Vice Chairman and Madam Mohamed Anisah Dumbo as Treasurer as well as seven other Council Members.

The 10-member board would be the decision-making body of the Chamber, looking forward to get into the skills, capabilities and social capital of the council, to achieve a shared vision and prosperity for Ghana’s private sector.

The board was sworn in by Nana Dr Appiagyei Dankawoso I, the President of GCCI in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital.

It was part of activities of a working visit by the leadership of GCCI to ascertain progress of businesses in the Region, familiarize themselves with the challenges and prescribe the needed intervention to mitigate the situation.

The team paid a courtesy call on the Upper West Regional Minister, interacted with some smock weavers from Wa and shea butter producers in Kperisi, also in the Wa Municipal.

The interaction was on how to attract the needed investors into the region and what conditions needed to be created for foreign and local investors who wanted to bring in their capital for investment.

Nana Dankawoso I said the Chamber’s contribution to Ghana’s economy could not be overemphasized and added that it was his vision to set up a business school to help build capacity of members.

“It is one of my visions to make sure that we set up a business school and as part of that, we need to start from somewhere, so we need to build capacity of members”, he said.

He urged members to maximize the One-District-One-Factory project to produce more products for export, saying, “Producing more for export will affect the cedi and dollar fight.”

He believed that: “when we are able to export more, it means that we can get more foreign exchange that will take care of the import that we do”.

The Chief Executive Officer of the GNCCI, Mr Mark Badu Aboagye, noted that the chamber was mandated by the Legislative Instrument (L.I) establishing it to protect interest of the private sector.

He said the national secretariat of the chamber was always available to provide support to businesses.

Mr Flex Segu Eshun, Northern Sector Manager of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), highlighted the requirement for accessing loan from the bank.

Some of the requirements he indicated were proper documentation, an active bank account and financial transaction.

He charged businesses to build trust and confidence with their suppliers to enable them access goods on credit.