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GNPCL board inaugurated

A SEVEN-MEMBER newly constituted board of the once defunct Ghana National Procurement Company Limited (GNPCL) was inaugurated in Accra yesterday.

Chaired by the former Upper East Regional Minister, Alhassan Samari, a Tax Policy Planning and Administration Consultant, the board has other members including Dr Edward N.Y. Ofori-Ku-ragu, a tourism and hospitality expert, Mr Charles Kweku Hammond, an advertising and marketing consultant.

Others are Mr Kwaku Nsiah Mensuoh, an I.T consultant, Dr. Joseph Kofi Nkuah, a tax administrator, Mr. Mohammed Abdul Hamid and Kofi Okyere-Agyekum, Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa South in the Eastern Region, Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, who inaugurated the board tasked it to immediately revamp its activities and position itself as a force to reckon with within the framework of the government’s industrial transformation agenda.

According to him, though the company has had a checkered history, the advent of programmes like the One District One Factory (IDIF) provided an opportunity “to act as a commercial intermedi- ary by procuring and selling locally produced raw materials for the numerous sprawling companies under the flagship programme”.

This, he said, was especially so when most of the companies under the programme were agro- based and needed a guaranteed source of raw materials which he thought the GNPCL should take advantage of.

Mrintermediary Kyeremanten urged the board to strive hard to become an export hub by being a leader in the export of made-in-Ghana goods “since the Ghana Export Promotion Authority is not a commercial entity”. He, however, cautioned them not to lose sight of the vast domestic market that had developed a great taste for locally manufactured products.

The Board Chairman, Mr Sa- mari thanked the minister for the confidence reposed in him and his colleagues, promising, on behalf, to do their best to turn round the fortunes of the company for the better. The GNPCL was established in 1976 by SMCD 55 as a statutory body to help stabilise the prices of essential commodities.

It was later incorporated in 1995 as a limited liability company under the company’s code to import essential commodities for distribution and sale to consumers at affordable prices.

BY TIMES REPORTER

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