Accra — Mr. Kofi M. Essuman, Chairman, GS1 Ghana, has recommended the use of barcodes on the country's ballot papers.

This, he said, would prevent doubts, errors and fraud.

Speaking at the launch of barcodes technology in Ghana, Mr. Essuman said the use of barcodes would provide easy tracking of information for authentication purposes.

Barcodes are mainly used for consumer products, but the Chairman of GS1 Ghana said, "many countries have contacted us on the use of barcodes for their elections, so we must also start using it because barcodes constitute a power technological tool that will allow people to have confidence in the country's electoral system."

Barcodes are those simple vertical black and white lines with numbers and letters mainly found on product packages.

On trade, he said, the absence of barcodes on Ghanaian products has affected the sale of products on the international market.

Producing a good product, he said, is no longer enough to keep a company competitive in today's global market place.

"The service associated with the product must be well managed and products must be of consistent quality This requires the use of systems of production with standardized processes and a common business language using electronic data capture technologies", he said.

Mr. Essuman said until recently, Ghana was the only sub-Saharan country registered as a member of GS1. "GS1 has a lot to offer the business community in Ghana and it is my hope that we will make the best use of this simple business tool for efficiency in business transactions," he said.

GS1 manages a global system that allows companies all around the world to globally and uniquely identify their physical things like trade items (products & services), assets, logistic units, shipments, and physical locations and logical things like a corporation or a service relationship between provider and recipient.

The GS1 system is used in all productive and non productive areas. The advantage of its application is found particularly in countries with a high level of technological development. The GS1 system is used in trade, production, warehousing, health care, publication, banks, library, laboratories, in office etc.

The Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and President's Special Initiative, Ms. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, said the use of barcodes in Ghana has become necessary in view of the existing barriers to trade, which denies exporters entry into international market.

The barcode initiative, she said, was recommended by a committee tasked by the Ministry to find out ways to assist Ghanaian exporters accessing traceability tools.

Ms Botchwey said barcodes constituted a technological tool, which creates confidence in buyers and consumers that the product's origin could easily be traced.

The technology also serves as a mark of compliance to global standards and its neglect would marginalize the country's performance in the global market, she explained.

Barcodes were complements to the Labelling Regulations (LI 1541) enforced by the Ghana Standards Board. The Board has begun a campaign to alert consumers to look for such product information.

The Deputy Minister of Trade appealed to Ghanaian exporters to contact GS1 and the Institute of Packaging to obtain their barcode identification.