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The Government is in the process of setting up a national airline, President John Dramani Mahama, has hinted.
The President made the disclosure during the credential ceremony to receive letters of credence from Dr Abdulla Muraid Sulaiman Mohammed Al Mandoos, Ambassador of UAE to Ghana, at the Presidency in Accra. President Mahama noted that when the time of the expression of interest from countries, who had established a commitment and technical knowledge, Ghana would consider partnering the UAE in setting up a national airline.
“And so, when we get to that stage, I know that apart from Emirates, like Dubai and several other companies, if they’re interested in partnering with Ghana, to take advantage of Ghana as an aviation hub, we’ll be willing to work with the UAE,” the President said. He recalled that when Ghana Airways started the routes from Accra to Dubai, there was a small number of people who used to go to the UAE.
“Today we have daily flights with Emirates between Accra and Dubai. And we appreciate that very much.” President Mahama, who encouraged more investments from the Gulf countries into Ghana, also noted that there were many opportunities that Ghana had in different sectors. He said they had already seen some investors come to Ghana, citing that the initial one had been between Abu Dhabi and the Volta River Authority, which led to the establishment of the Takoradi Thermal power plant (TICO), which was still running and providing electric power for Ghana.
He said they had been in discussion to see how they could widen cooperation in many other areas in Ghana. He said one of the major exports from Ghana to the UAE was gold and that the Government of Ghana was looking to see how they could formalize the trade in gold. The President said Ghana was in the process of setting up what they call the Gold Board, which would enable them formalize and officially export gold to their friendly countries that were interested in purchasing the commodity from Ghana; so that they remove a lot of the non-transparency around the gold trade. Adding that Ghana would be in close discussions with the UAE on that.
President Mahama said apart from that, there were several Ghanaians working in the UAE, a lot of whom go there under informal agreements and that the Government of Ghana was trying to set up the Ghana Labour Export programme, where they would train their young people to international proficiency in electrical engineering, carpentry, masonry, welding, construction, and all the other areas.
This, he said was to send them under a more formal agreement, than the way they go currently. “Sometimes they run into trouble when they go to the UAE. So, we want to see how we can formalize that agreement so that when they go, they go legally and have all the protection they need from the UAE government,” he said. Touching on diplomacy, President Mahama said Ghana set up a consulate in 2011, which has been operating quite well and then they also set up an Embassy in Abu Dhabi in 2017.
He said the Ghana-UAE relation was working very well; stating that the Abu Dhabi Mission had oversight of several other countries, who were considering strengthening it. With regards to climate change, President Mahama expressed gratitude to the UAE for the climate change facility that was given to Ghana to reinforce resilience of climate change in the communities.
He said the UAE gave Ghana an amount of $30 million last September to fight climate change and that Ghana was in the process of utilizing that fund to support communities that were affected by climate change. “We know that Africa has contributed the least to climate change but is suffering with adversity from the effects of climate change,” the President said.
“And so, when friendly countries like the UAE come around to help us with our petition, it is something that we appreciate.” The President said Ghana would also like to cooperate in the fight against terrorism; saying “terrorism is a threat to everyone in the world”. He said the West Africa subregion currently had become a major threat for terrorists and jihadist groups.
He said the collapse of the regime of the late President Muammar Gaddafi of Libya brought a lot of violence into the Sahel and when ISIS was defeated in Syria and other places, a lot of ISIS fighters found a safe haven in the Sahel. President Mahama said currently they were involved in different attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. He reiterated the need for international cooperation against terrorism in the affected countries. On his part, Dr Abdulla Muraid Sulaiman Mohammed Al Mandoos, the Ambassador of the UAE to Ghana, called for the strengthening bilateral relations between the UAE and Ghana.
Source: GNA
