{"id":3336,"date":"2024-08-23T00:59:39","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T00:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=3336"},"modified":"2024-08-23T00:59:40","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T00:59:40","slug":"bawumia-unveils-buy-ghana-first-initiative-aiming-to-curb-imports-from-china-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=3336","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Bawumia unveils &#8216;Buy-Ghana-First&#8217; initiative, aiming to curb imports from China and beyond.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"177\" src=\"https:\/\/uwordpressmedia.blob.core.windows.net\/uwordpressmedia01\/2024\/08\/93661903.295.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3337\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Addressing a durbar at New Abirem as part of his campaign in the Eastern Region, Vice President\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/people\/person.php?ID=1188\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia<\/a>\u00a0explained that the policy would require state agencies to prioritise the procurement of locally produced goods and services over imports.<br><br>The flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia has announced that he will introduce a new policy dubbed \u201cBuy Ghana First\u201d if elected President.<br><br>According to Dr. Bawumia, the policy will ensure that items such as furniture, school uniforms, and other products that can be manufactured within the country are not procured from other countries for government businesses.<br><br>\u201cWe will introduce a policy called \u201cBuy Ghana first\u201d for the government. So, if the government wants to procure something that is locally available, we must procure it here instead of importing. For instance, if we need furniture, we must buy from Ghana not that we go to another country to bring in the chairs, furniture, school uniforms\u201d.<br><br>The Vice President emphasized that the move is intended to create more jobs for Ghanaians, particularly tailors and carpenters, by ensuring that government contracts for these products are awarded to local businesses.<br><br>\u201cThis will create more jobs. So henceforth if we want school uniforms we won\u2019t import from China. We will produce all in Ghana so that our tailors will get more work to do. All the furniture will be produced in Ghana for carpenters to get more work. You only go outside when the product is not available in Ghana. The buy Ghana first policy will boost production and save foreign exchange. It will help businesses\u201d<br><br>This initiative comes as the country faces increasing pressure to stabilize the Ghanaian cedi, which has been depreciating against major trading currencies.<br><br>Recent data from the Ghana Statistical Service revealed that the country\u2019s import bill for the first quarter of 2024 increased by $100 million compared to the same period in 2023, reaching $3.9 billion.<br><br>China remains the leading source of imports, accounting for 21.8% of total imports and 45.8% of imports from Asia.<br><br>The \u201cBuy Ghana First\u201d policy is expected to help reduce the country\u2019s import bill, boost local production, and support the government\u2019s efforts to strengthen the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Addressing a durbar at New Abirem as part of his campaign in the Eastern Region, Vice President\u00a0Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia\u00a0explained that the policy would require state [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3338,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions\/3338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}