By Nathaniel Nartey
Facebook: Nathaniel Nartey
Twitter : @Annertey_Nartey
The Government of Ghana and the Greek Government have signed an MOU on Political and socio-economic cooperation. As part of the MOU, the Greek Government donated about 150k doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Ghana.
This was made known by the Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias when he paid a visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in Accra (November 26, 2021). HE. Nikos Dendias said
” Apart from the 100k vaccines I sent, I came with another 50k….we care very much. We don’t have a colonial past so we identify with your struggle”.
The visit is considered historic as it is the first time in the history of Ghana-Greek relations where a Foreign Minister from Greece has visited Ghana. HE. Nikos Dendias asked Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey to reciprocate the gesture by visiting his country and extended the invite to President Akufo Addo.
Speaking on the potential of Greek investments in Ghana, he said
“Greek business men have invested over $100m in businesses in Ghana already. We should try and put economic flesh to the backbone of our relations. The purpose of my visit is also to open the way for Greek businessmen to invest and do more. I believe there is a lot we can do together. Africa will be the power house of the world and Ghana is already the power house of West Africa”.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey was happy about the level of Greek investments in Ghana.
“$100m in investment already and your visit here means we can increase that. Ghana hosts the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat and so investing in Ghana means investing in a potential 1.2bn African market that is expected to grow to 2bn by 2050. And so we hope the Greek businesses will continue to invest in West Africa which is a 350m market in the areas of Agriculture and Tourism”.
Madam Ayorkor Botchwey singled out the tourism sector as an area where Ghana can learn the best practices from Greece to improve the sector.
“Because you receive a lot of tourists in Greece, we would want to learn the best practices from you to grow our sector here in Ghana”.
She said “We hope that the MOU we also look at close political consultations which hopefully will turn into a permanent fully fledged joint commission so that we can look at moving from bilateral relations to multilateral cooperation to make this relationship very meaningful.”
