The Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) is taking steps to promote Ghanaian jewellery in the international market.
Nana Akwasi Awuah, Managing Director of PMMC, said the Company had invested in a 3D printer and software that designs, prints and was used to create sophisticated jewellery for both the Ghanaian and the international markets.
Nana Awuah was speaking at the opening and moving of the Company’s Spintex Branch to the Marina Shopping Mall, on the Spintex Road in Accra.
The new shop on the Spintex Road will serve parts of the Greater Accra Region, including Tema, Lashibi, Nungua, Teshie and surrounding areas, where customers will easily walk in and transact business without traveling long distance to the Company’s main office at Accra.
There are trained and knowledgeable staff available to assist customers to make informed buying decisions.
The Managing Director said the Company had also improved on its finishing, regarding its jewellery.
He said the Company had organised some meetings with the Jewellers Association of Ghana and very soon those plans would come into fruition, in terms of assisting them to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“So, that is what we are doing in order to promote jewellery and generally value addition of our precious minerals in Ghana,” he added.
He said they want to get people to understand the culture of owning jewellery and as part of their grand agenda and strategy for them to appreciate the value of jewellery.
“We want to embark on social re-engineering, where Ghanaians will come to accept and take jewellery as a store of value,” he added.
The Managing Director said Ghana currently was number one in Africa in terms of gold production and number six in the world.
He said the whole idea was to be able to encourage value addition and drive it well to turn round the narrative of exporting gold without value.
Nana Awuah said the Company was looking at the concerns on responsible sourcing of natural resources, which they had developed responsible sourcing guidelines internally to direct its operations.
He said the Company had sourced responsibly for the jewellery and would soon come up with a hallmarking system for jewellery made by other jewellers in the system to enable them to penetrate the international market.
He called on those who travelled out of the continent to buy jewellery in Dubai or elsewhere to equally come to Ghana and purchase their jewellery, because “we have improved with the investment in 3D technology, which is being used everywhere in the world.
“So, our brothers from the West Africa sub-region, Nigeria, Senegal and elsewhere who make those long journeys to Dubai and elsewhere to buy jewellery, can now turn all the attention and procure them right here in Ghana,” he added.
GNA
