Mahama’s administration to consider opening Ghana’s mission in Budapest

President-elect John Dramani Mahama says his administration will look at the issue of reciprocity, in terms of opening Ghana’s Diplomatic Mission in Budapest, Hungary.

“We can start with a Mission and then build it up as our relations begin to grow further,” he said.

Mr Mahama was speaking during a courtesy call on him by Mr Tamás Fehér, the Ambassador of Hungary to Ghana, at his Cantonment Office in Accra.

The Ambassador was there to congratulate the President-elect on his victory in the December 7 polls.

He was accompanied by Dr Lawrence Tetteh, the Founder/President of Worldwide Miracle Outreach, and a beneficiary of a Hungarian Government Scholarship.

Mr Mahama said the Ghana-Hungary relations were historic and expressed happiness that his first administration was able to bring the two nations closer together to take their relations to another level.

Upon hearing from the Ambassador that more than 750 Ghanaians had benefitted from Hungarian Government Scholarships, Mr Mahama said his administration would also give some Hungarians scholarships to study in Ghana, saying; “Then it becomes reciprocal, it is not like a one-way traffic.”

Responding to the Ambassador’s statement that Hungary made available a $100 million facility to the outgoing administration, which did not show interest, Mr Mahama said he would act on it as soon as he assumed office.

“I am surprised that this government didn’t follow up on the $100 million credit facility, but you can be assured that as soon as we assume office, that is something the new Finance Minister is going to look at.”

“We can sit and discuss the areas where you think it should be applied. I am happy that you are dealing with wastewater, because it is one of the major issues we have not been able to treat before releasing it into the environment.”

“I went to Israel and they have two pipelines, one bringing in clean water and one carrying wastewater to the field to irrigate farms,” he stated.

“These are things that will enhance the power of farmers by giving them the opportunity to farm all year round.”

Mr Mahama said one of the major problems facing the northern part of Ghana was farmers' dependence on the rains, which usually started in June/July and any time there was rain failure, the farmers became impoverished.

“That is the major problem we have in the north of this country. We have one cropping season and once we miss it, like the drought that happened recently, then the farmers will be impoverished,” he noted.

“On my own farm, I planted, and for 12 weeks no rains, luckily I had emergency irrigation equipment and that was what saved about 60 per cent of the farm but I lost about 40 per cent of the crop this year.”

“But that is me, what about the ordinary farmer?”

Mr Tamás Fehér congratulated the President-elect on his victory and noted that Hungary was looking forward to Ghana opening a Mission in Budapest as part of efforts to strengthen their relations.

Hungary supports Ghana in areas of agriculture, water, sanitation and wastewater management, education, and security.

He mentioned that the Ghana chip-embedded passport, which was recently launched, was produced by a Hungarian firm.

Touching on education, Mr Fehér said since 2016, Hungary has provided scholarships to Ghanaian students to study in his country and so far, 750 Ghanaians have benefitted.

He appealed to the incoming President to reciprocate the gesture by giving Hungarian students scholarships to study here.

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