President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has charged 10 newly commissioned Ghanaian diplomats to make the facilitation of foreign direct investment inflows into Ghana their top priority at their various duty posts.
Addressing the envoys at the Jubilee House on Thursday 7 July 2022, after administering the oaths of office, allegiance and secrecy to them, President Akufo-Addo said current global economic and supply chain trends and challenges make his call even more imperative.
He urged the new envoys to familiarise themselves with the Ghana Cares Obaatanpaa programme his administration has put in place to revamp the economy and to use their offices to ensure its success through the attraction of investments into Ghana from their various duty posts.
“Your appointments have come at a very particularly important moment not only in global affairs, but also in the development of mother Africa and mother Ghana.
“All the countries of the world are working to return themselves to a state on normalcy following the devastating impact of the pandemic of COVID-19 whose effects have been exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Akufo-Addo said.
“Economies have been plunged into recession, businesses have collapsed, lives and livelihoods have been disrupted, food and fuel prices have escalated dramatically as global and domestic inflation pressures mount,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo noted that “what these twin events (COVID-19 and the Russia invasion of Ukraine) has thought all of us is that we also have to deepen our ties and cooperation and bonds of friendship with each other”.
No country, the President said, “can afford to go it alone. We either succeed together or perish together and that is why your work as Ambassadors and High Commissioners will be needed the most”.
“You must familiarise yourself with these objectives (Ghana Cares Obaatanpaa programme) which are at the core of my second term mandate. They represent one of the surest ways out of the crisis confronting out nation”.
“It will help thrust Ghana back unto the path of progress and prosperity. Each one of you must help in contributing to the success of this programme by facilitating among other things, as much foreign investments into the country as you can” he added.
The envoys
Ambassador Emmanuel Kwame Asiedu Antwi, who is heading to Switzerland, in his response on behalf of his colleague, to the call of the President, indicated that he and his fellow envoys are committed to the President’s vision of a Ghana beyond aid and they will work hard to contribute their quota to same.
The 10 commissioned diplomats are Ambassador Ahmed Hassan, former Director of State Protocol, who will now serve in his new capacity as Ambassador-at-Large. Mrs Merene Benyah, the Ambassador designate for Italy, is the only non-career diplomat among those commissioned.
She will replace the former ambassador extraordinaire and plenipotentiary to Italy who had concurrent accreditation to Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the late Eudora Hilda Quartey-Koranteng, who died at post on 19 October 2021.
The other eight are all career-diplomats and they are Mrs Worwornyo Agyeman, High Commissioner designate to Sierra Leone, Mr Mohammed Nurudeen Ismalia, Ambassador designate to Qatar, Ms Mavis Esi Kusorgbor, Ambassador designate to Angola, Mrs Lydia Ofosua Amartey, and Ambassador designate to Israel.
The remaining are Ambassador Emmanuel Kwame Asiedu Antwi, Switzerland, Mrs Florence Buerki Akonor, High Commissioner designate to Malaysia, Mrs Emma Mensah, Ambassador designate to Senegal and Mr Henry Tachie-Menson, Chief of Protocol, Ambassador-In-Situ.
