Press Release from Ghana Embassy in Switzerland

HIS EXCELLENCY AMBASSADOR KWABENA BAAH-DUODU, GHANA’S AMBASSADOR TO SWITZERLAND, ON AN OFFICIAL VISIT TO THE COMMUNE OF SISSACH, NEAR BASEL, SWITZERLAND.

At the invitation of the Executive Council of the Commune of Sissach, near the industrial city of Basel, Switzerland, His Excellency Mr. Kwabena Baah-Duodu recently embarked on a familiarisation tour of the Sissach Commune and held discussions with the area’s Local Council on ways and means to strengthen relations between Ghana and the community.

The people of Sissach have had a longstanding relationship with Ghana, which began in the late 1820s when the first group of Basel Missionaries arrived on the shores of the then Gold Coast. Many of those early Missionaries, including Mr. Johannes Haas, who later became the first Manager of the Akropong Agricultural Station, hailed from the Sissach Community.

In his remarks at the Community’s Local Assembly, His Excellency Ambassador Kwabena Baah-Duodu paid tribute to those early Missionaries for their collaboration with the early Gold Coast farmers such as Tetteh Quarshie, which led to the realisation of a vibrant cocoa industry in Ghana. He said those pioneers would be forever remembered for having initiated those people to people contacts which had paved the way for the current fruitful bilateral ties between Ghana and Switzerland.

The Ambassador, who was accompanied my some staff of the Embassy in Berne, as well as members of the Ex- Ghana / Swiss Society, who facilitated the visit, toured the community’s market, its home for the aged and other interesting ecological sites, while interacting with the people.