Ghana Armed Forces

The 5th Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Management and Operations Course have taken off at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), Teshie on Monday 15 February 2010.

The one-week course aims at equipping participants with background knowledge required by professional Maritime Practitioners and affiliate units, as well as other important decision makers in EEZ Management and Operations with a view to enabling them have a better understanding of the issues involved in the EEZ.

The course is also expected to create awareness among Stakeholders about the enormity of the resource potential and the requirements for monitoring, control and surveillance of the EEZ.  It will also identify and define the roles and capabilities of the various stakeholders in the effective and efficient management of the EEZ which will finally enable all stakeholders appreciate the magnitude of each other’s contribution towards the management of the resources within the country’s EEZ.

Participants were drawn from some West African countries, including Senegal, the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Togo, La Cote d’ivoire and Rwanda in Central Africa. Some internal Stakeholders such as the Ghana Navy, Customs & Excise Narcotics Control Board, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) are also participating in the course.

In his introductory remarks, the Commandant of the GAFCSC, Major General Kwesi Yankson, said for the past four years, over 300 personnel from about 20 Ministries, Departments, Agencies and various Organisations have benefited from the course.

He intimated that, this year’s course was quite unique because it had the largest number of participants and was also the first time students from the Army faculty were taking part. He used the occasion to advise the participants, especially those from Ghana, to use the knowledge that will be acquired to help find solutions to the challenges that may face Ghana in the oil industry as drilling and extraction will soon begin.

The Deputy Minister for Energy, Honourable Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, in his address, praised the Management of the College and the Military hierarchy in general, for introducing such a course.

He pointed out that Ghanaians should be extremely proud to have a visionary Military that does not see itself as a mere fighting force, but one that goes to the extent of proactively providing for the defence of the economic interests of the country.

Hon Buah further mentioned that it was in the right direction that the course was not limited to the military alone, but to other Stakeholders from various organisations that were perceived to have a role to play in the management of the Country’s maritime resources.

This, he said, may be considered as one more effort to forge links and strengthen the bonds of cooperation and understanding between the Military and their civilian counterparts which he noted, holds the Ghanaian military up and high as strategic team players.