Vice-President Bawumia receives two Ambassadors

Two Ambassadors to Ghana, have paid a courtesy on Vice-President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia towards strengthening trilateral cooperation among the three countries.

The delegation comprised Ms. Shani Cooper, Ambassador of the State of Israel to Ghana, Liberia and Sierra-Leone and Mr. Christoph Retzlaff, the German Ambassador to Ghana, who was accompanied by Madam Regina Bauerochse Barbosa, Country Director of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit in Ghana (GIZ Ghana).

The discussion was inspired by the Trilateral Cooperation between Ghana, Germany and Israel, which was launched in 2019 as a platform for exchange around and support to digital innovation.

The first two phases of the Trilateral Cooperation consisted of a webinar series facilitated by Mashav, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, on the Israeli innovation ecosystem and an overview and discussion on governmental action in Ghana.

To support cooperation among government ministries and agencies, including; Accra Digital Centre, National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, German development cooperation is supporting five co-designed projects with Euros 50,000.

Interacting with the Vice-President, Ms. Cooper expressed Israel’s continued commitment to supporting Ghana's innovation development programmes.

The Ambassador singled out collaboration among various ministries as an area of outmost relevance as the country took digital transformation and innovation a notch higher.

“Being a cross-cutting topic, digital transformation requires inclusive processes to achieve robust sustainable structures,” she added.

Mr Retzlaff commended the Vice-President for his role in spearheading the digitalization agenda of the Ghanaian government, adding that the German Government was committed to supporting the agenda to create jobs and employment in both traditional and new sectors of the economy, to increase competitiveness and productivity of the economy, and to improve access to services for citizens.

He highlighted two projects – the Digital Transformation Center and Make IT in Africa – being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by GIZ to support tech-startups with access to finance and markets and to promote digital and entrepreneurial skills in both urban and rural parts of Ghana.

Dr. Bawumia recognised Germany and Israel's contribution to Ghana's digitalization agenda and committed to further support the goals of the trilateral cooperation.