The Industrial Liaison Committee (ILC) under the leadership of the Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Kumasi, represented by Professor Dadson Awunyo-Vitor and Dr Kojo Agyapong Afrifah have attended a 2-day capacity building workshop on flexible food packaging from 16th to 17th March 2022 at the Ecobank Head office in Accra.
The workshop provided a platform for regulatory authorities such as Ghana Standard Authority, Food and Drug Authority, manufacturers of food and drug products, trainers such as the Universities and package material manufacturers, an avenue to discuss how Micro, Small and Medium size enterprise can take advantage of the packing of their products to reach to reach a global market.
The workshop which was held under the theme: ‘’Building Capacity in Flexible Packaging to Enhance Food Safety and Quality for MSMEs in the Africa Free Trade Area’’ was in partnership with Ghana Standard Authority, ePac Felxible Packaging and Ecobank Ghana Limited.
The Chief Operation Officer of ePac Flexible Packaging Ghana Limited, Mrs Velda Sosah, launched and stated the purpose of the workshop which followed by a welcomed address from the Chief Executive Officer of Food and Drugs Authority, Mrs Delse Darko.
Similarly, the Director General of Ghana Standard Authority, Prof Alex Dodoo and the Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana Limited, Mr Daniel Sackey also gave goodwill messages as collaborating and supporting partners respectively.
During the Technical session of the workshop, the participants were taken through topics such as; Overview of Packaging, Current Standard for Food Packaging, Packaging as a regulatory function, Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises packaging Pain Points, Packaging Design and Branding, Introduction to Flexible Packaging, Food Safety and Implementation.
The KNUST representatives present at the workshop seized the opportunity to indulge some facilitators including the ePack Flexible Packaging Limited Executives both in Ghana and Dubai who expressed interest in collaborating and partnering with KNUST to organise programmes and short courses and support training of students through internships and exchange programmes.
According to the team, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be drafted to formalise the collaboration with the interested entities.