German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and President Akufo-Addo
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has pledged increased support for Ghana’s infrastructure development, education and energy sectors to enable the country to achieve its vision of moving beyond aid.
She said Germany would assist Ghana to put up the structures that would advance its quest to modernize and industrialize the economy to create wealth and prosperity.
That was the way forward to wean the nation off foreign aid.
She was speaking at a joint press conference with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo after the pair had held bilateral talks at the Jubilee House, in Accra.
The German Chancellor was on a day’s visit to Ghana as part of her three-nation Africa tour, which had already taken her to Senegal.
Her visit was to bolster German-Ghana ties and discuss ways of working together to address the challenges of sub-regional security and migration.
Chancellor Merkel underlined her country’s readiness to provide vocational training to the youth in Ghana to make their lives meaning to the society – contribute effectively to the country’s socio-economic development.
Germany was eager to do more for Africa, and they would scale up assistance and scholarship to Ghanaian and African youth, to substantially reduce the high incidence of youth migration from Africa to Europe.
Her Government would up the number of German universities, offering scholarship to Ghanaians.
Currently 42 German tertiary institutions give scholarships to Ghanaian students.
Chancellor Merkel gave high marks to President Akufo-Addo for his achievements since assuming office, and leadership role in the ECOWAS Region.
She also applauded him for encouraging the young people to develop their own vision in a confident manner, through the various initiatives put in place by his Administration.
Also refreshing were Ghana’s democratic credentials, the rule of law, and said, “Ghana is a vanguard for democracy in Africa”.
She encouraged the country to continue to work hard to tackle the corruption and offered Germany’s help in that area.
She spoke about a comprehensive plan her country and the rest of Europe had been working out to deal with the issue of migration by African youth to Europe.
President Akufo-Addo, on his part, said Ghana was looking for opportunity to create wealth and jobs for its youthful population.
That would ensure that they stayed in the country and avoided that dangerous and perilous journey to Europe to seek non-existent opportunities.
He added that they were focusing priority on modernising the nation’s agriculture to create jobs.
It would require securing long term financing for its development, to strengthen it to manage its own affairs
He expressed joy at the decision by the Volkswagen Automobile Company to put up an assembling plant in Ghana in partnership with a local company.
That, he said, was an indication of the confidence that Germany had in Ghana’s economy
Africa was not happy about illegal migration and was taking steps to deal with the problem.
He noted that the problems of insurgency and insecurity in the Sahel Region would be solved when opportunities were created for the youth.
He gave the assurance that Ghana would collaborate with Germany to address those problems alongside human and drug trafficking.
Source: GNA
