Government receives GHC8.2m grant from Japan

The Government of Japan has provided a grant of GHC8.2million under its human resource development scholarship to the Government of Ghana.

The grant which is equivalent to 1.73million USD is to support human resource development in Ghana, and targets highly capable young government officials who are expected to engage in formulating and implementing social and economic plans.

Selected participants will be trained to acquire expert knowledge in the field of energy, health, agriculture and finance while building human networks at the various Japanese Universities under the program.

Speaking at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said Ghana will continue to acknowledge the enormous contributions from the government of Japan to the country’s socio-economic development especially in the area of education, health, energy and infrastructure. She noted that the program will complement the Akufo-Addo led government’s efforts to improve human resource capacity in the country.

“So far about forty-five Ghanaians have benefited from the project since its inception in 2012 and it is my hope that the knowledge and skills they acquired and are yet to acquire in the various fields of study will put them in better position to help with the development of the country. Indeed Ghana has benefited from Japan Human Resource Development Scholarship project aimed at building capacity of officials from various ministries and departments including Ministry of finance, health, agriculture, Ghana health service among others,” she added.

On his part, the Ambassador of Japan to Ghana, Tsutomu Himeno said the areas chosen were because both government considers them strategically important in terms of strengthening human resource for development.

According to him, 10 government officials will be given scholarships to obtain their master’s degree at Japan Universities such as Kobe University, Nagasaki University, University of Tsukuba and Hiroshima University focusing on public economi, health, agriculture and energy. He also noted that there will be other short courses offered to give more opportunity to Ghanaians to participate in the program.

“The JDS program is implemented with the hope that these young participants will acquire knowledge and skills that are useful in tackling social and economic issues that Ghana faces and take leadership roles in Ghana. We are also hopeful that the selected participants of the scholarship program will contribute to enhance bilateral relations between Ghana and japan. During their stay in Japan, they will certainly interact with Japanese people and I hope that they make friends there because personal friendship forms the foundation of friendship between two countries.

The event which was held at the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was graced by the Minister of Health Kwaku Agyemang Manu, Chief Representative of Jica, Hirofumi Hoshi, representatives from the ministries of finance, health, energy, agriculture and the Embassy of Japan.