Maphlix Trust signals a shift from commodity-led export model

The country’s dependence on oil and gold is not merely a policy concern but an economic certainty. These resources are finite. The open question is whether the country can build export systems capable of sustaining growth once they are exhausted.

That reality underpinned President John Dramani Mahama’s remarks to exporters at the President’s National Awards for Export Achievement, where he warned that crude oil and gold would not last forever. Long-term growth, he argued, will be driven by sectors that can renew themselves—agriculture, manufacturing and value-adding enterprises that generate wealth beyond extractive cycles.

“You are the real drivers of the economy,” Mahama told exporters, reframing the growth debate from what Ghana extracts to what it produces and transforms.

Against that backdrop, the recognition of Maphlix Trust Ghana Limited as Exporter of the Year in the SME category at the 33rd and 34th editions of the awards stands out less as a ceremonial honour and more as an economic signal. The company’s operating model reflects the export-led growth strategy Ghana has articulated for years but struggled to execute.

For decades, policymakers have emphasised diversification, value addition and resilience. Yet cocoa, gold and oil continue to dominate foreign exchange earnings, leaving the economy exposed to commodity price swings and external shocks. The gap has not been in policy intent, but in execution.

The citation accompanying Maphlix Trust Ghana’s award illustrates what changes when those long-stated objectives are embedded into commercial practice. The firm has built an export system that integrates sustainable production, value-chain development and community participation into a single structure, rather than treating them as parallel or donor-driven initiatives.

In doing so, it highlights a structural weakness in Ghana’s export economy. The constraint has never been a shortage of farmers, raw materials or entrepreneurial drive, but the failure to organise production into scalable, market-ready systems capable of meeting international demand while creating durable domestic value.

Maphlix Trust Ghana’s rise does not resolve that challenge. It does, however, demonstrate that the gap between policy rhetoric and export performance is not inevitable—and that the post-extractive economy Mahama described is a matter of execution rather than aspiration.

That logic is evident in the company’s promotion and commercialisation of Alafie Wuljo, often described as a “healthy potato.” Instead of exporting an undifferentiated crop, Maphlix Trust repositioned a local product around nutrition, climate resilience and export readiness, adapting indigenous agriculture to global demand without sidelining smallholder farmers.

The deliberate integration of smallholders into formal export markets sits at the core of the firm’s strategy. Investments in farmer capacity building, post-harvest handling and export quality certification address one of Ghana’s persistent structural failures: the disconnect between primary producers and foreign exchange–generating markets.

The company’s alignment with international sustainability frameworks, including the UN Global Compact and COLEACP’s sustainability charter, further positions its exports within tightening global compliance regimes. As market access increasingly depends on traceability, environmental standards and governance, this approach reflects anticipation rather than reactive compliance.

Trade and Agribusiness Minister Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjaye echoed this shift, noting that while cocoa, gold and oil remain important, Ghana’s economic resilience is increasingly being shaped outside those traditional pillars. Agribusiness, manufacturing and services that add value locally, she said, are now central to the country’s diversification drive under the Made-in-Ghana initiative.

Maphlix Trust Chief Executive Officer Dr Felix Mawuli Kamassah said the National Export Awards should serve not only as recognition but as a policy signal, highlighting export models that merit deliberate scaling. He noted that the emphasis on exporters who repatriate earnings reinforces the link between trade performance, foreign exchange stability and macroeconomic management.

Dr Kamassah added that scaling agribusiness exports will require coordinated institutional support, particularly from the Ghana Export Promotion Authority and the Ghana Export–Import Bank, to address financing gaps, market access constraints and value-chain inefficiencies.

With targeted funding, export development support and incentives for value addition, he said agribusiness firms can move beyond pilot successes to deliver sustained growth, positioning the sector as a key contributor to Ghana’s US$10 billion export ambition and a more resilient foreign exchange base.

 

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