Paliamentary Sub-Committee Interacts With Ghanaians In The Diaspora

Story Nana Sifa Twum - London

The government has been urged to tap the abundance expertise of Ghanaians both at home and abroad to execute policies and projects as opposed to the use of expatriates who cause the nation fortunes for the same services that could be performed even better by Ghanaian.

During an interaction with Members of the Parliamentary Sub committee on Foreign Affairs in London, members of the Ghanaian community in the United Kingdom were of the view that the Government of Ghana spends too much resource on expatriates on Ghanaian projects while many Ghanaians who have similar of even better knowledge and skills are not considered.

The committee was in London to interact with the Ghanaian community as part of a tour of European countries to access the extent of rapport between the Ghanaian communities and the Missions.

Among other issues the committees also explored the challenges of the missions and the communities to assist in addressing them.

London was the third point of call after Germany and The Netherlands. The London meeting, according to members of the committee, was the best in terms of patronage comportment, frankness and issues raised. It was also considered as the venue with the most encouraging commendation about the mission and its head, Professor Kwaku Danso Boafo.

About 80 percent of contributors and questioners praised the mission for the drastic change especially in the area of customer services, while Professor Danso Boafo was hailed for his affirmative rapport with the community. It was also observed that he has visited almost all Ghanaian communities in the United Kingdom during his 11 months in office.

The members of the community included Mr. Francis Osei-Sarfo, chairman, Shelley Aworko- Botwe, Joseph Sam Amankwanor and Innusah Seidu as the clerk of the committee, listened to members of the community for more than two hours as they raised issues on cumbersome customs procedures and duty, difficulties faced by Ghanaian students abroad, the assistance to community contingency fund, the integrity of the Ghanaian passport, among others.

There was a prolonged discussion on the many Ghanaian professionals especially doctors and nurses in the Diaspora who wanted to work back home but are faced with huge frustrations resulting in discourament and in some cases abandonment their dreams.

The Chairman of the Ghanaian Doctors and Dentists Association in the UK, Dr. Kofi Adu, said though some members of the association are working on voluntary base in some hospitals in Ghana, many other who intended to do same were frustrated by the system and gave up.

The Chairman of the Ghana Union Mr. Kwame Adu noted that there are a lot of Ghanaian professionals living outside the country but have difficulties in working in Ghana due to what he described as unnecessary and awkward demands as well as frustrations from civil service and government officials.

He praised the Ghana High Commission in the UK for instituting professional and skills data base of Ghanaians in the UK and said this will be useful to the government by way of, identifying her needs with such skills.

Some of the members also called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to institute pragmatic measures in ensuring that Ghana’s passport is held in high esteem by not allowing the nation’s document falling into the hands of wrong people. Mr. Anim Amandor suggested that the issuance of the newly introduced biometric passport must be a means to “weed out all other nationals who hold Ghanaian passports”

Mrs Shirley Ayorkor Botwe who spoke on behalf of the delegation said the idea of the visit was to collate views from Ghanaians in the Diaspora for parliament to discuss and formulate policies out of them to shape the nation’s foreign policies which will have the Ghanaian living in the Diaspora in mind.

Earlier, Professor Danso-Boafo who was excused out of the meeting to enable the members of the community to freely express themselves told the gathering that his office has put in place an open policy where any member of the community could feel part of the mission.