British High Commissioner opens new Multinational Maritime Coordination Center in Accra

The British High Commissioner His Excellency Iain Walker and the Deputy Minister of Defence, Derrick Oduro, in the presence of a number of Senior Ghanaian Military, will open the newly refurbished, with UK funding, ECOWAS Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre (MMCC) Zone F Operations and Training Rooms at the MMCC Zone F Headquarters, Christianborg Castle, Osu-Accra on 10 February 2020.

The opening marked the beginning of a two-week human development course on the subject of Maritime Domain Awareness, being delivered in conjunction with the United Kingdom.

The training forms part of the UK Government’s partnership, bringing effective collaboration, coordination and cooperation between Zone F states and the shipping industry.

This ECOWAS MMCC Zone F course is being delivered by instructors from the Royal Navy, UK Police and Border Force Officers. It is designed for staff and operators from the MMCC and National Maritime Operation Centres (MOCs), with 32 students from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo attending. It will provide Maritime Law enforcement officials, cross-border staff and commercial maritime actors with the skills to monitor, gather information and profile of vessels of interest. These include merchant vessels, fishing vessels, oil and gas platforms and support vessels.

As well as developing individual skills, the overall outcome of the course will be a network of stakeholders able to develop and share a maritime operating picture. This trusted network of personnel with enhanced skills in maritime threat comprehension and communication will be able to help the regional fight against maritime criminality and support the work of maritime law enforcement and regulatory agencies in the Gulf of Guinea.

The UK and Ghana are close, long-standing defence partners. Our modern defence partnership is helping to preserve border and maritime security in the region, underpinning Ghana’s ambitions as a regional economic hub, and bringing security to Africa through international peacekeeping efforts.

The UK has a long and proud history with the Ghana Navy and recognises the crucial role it has to play as a regional leader in Maritime Security, and as host to the ECOWAS MMCC Zone F. Its work, and the close cooperation between Ghana and its ECOWAS coastal neighbours, has been strengthened further since the signing of the ECOWAS Maritime Zone F Memorandum of Understanding, in July 2019.