By Emelia Nkrumah
Accra, March 22, GNA – The European Union says it is focused on supporting large investments that will bring about economic development in Ghana.
This it said will create more jobs in Ghana as well as the West African sub-region.
As part of the programming of the new European Union Neighbourhood, Development, and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) 2021-2027, the European Union, the African Union (AU) and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) of Sub-Saharan Africa set up in November 2020 a dialogue platform to strengthen communication and consultation between stakeholders.
The first two meetings of this mechanism which were held in November 2021 and June 2023 respectively in Accra, Ghana saw experts from the ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions in charge of regional development programmes in the priority areas of the NDICI and representatives of the European Union delegations in Burkina Faso and Nigeria.
Mr. Jérôme Boa, Director of External Relations of the ECOWAS Commission, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), at the third tripartite engagements in Accra, stated that there was the need to ensure that West Africa’s priorities were considered, without neglecting recent developments in the region.
He reiterated the importance of bilateral consultation by identifying gaps, clarifying issues, and developing common positions for the scheduled ECOWAS-UEMOA-EU tripartite meeting.
Massimo Mina, the Head of Cooperation at the European Union Delegation to Ghana, noted that, “This is very important for the neighbours and important in Ghana where we have a very strong focus on supporting large investments which can make structural changes that can be impactful to support the key problem that we have not only in Ghana but more generally in the region, which is job creation. So, through these instruments we can find the necessary resources to support job creation.
Mr Jonas Claes, chargé d’affaires at the EU Delegation in Ghana, expressed gratitude to ECOWAS and UEMOA for their commitment to supporting the programming and the implementation process of the 2021-2027 Multi-Annual Indicative Programme for Africa.
He indicated that the meeting would identify bottlenecks in the ongoing process and make recommendations aimed at positively impacting the region’s citizens, the main beneficiaries of the programmes.
Mr Arnaud Cédric Kiema, Director of Cooperation of the UEMOA Commission, said maintaining the framework for dialogue between the ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions and the EU would enable the three organisations to present their common vision for the successful implementation of NDICI for the benefit of the people of West Africa.
GNA