Ghana's Minister of Interior, Ambrose Dery has revealed that the Akufo-Addo administration will fully open its borders once the 20 million covid-19 vaccination target is met.
According to him, the move forms part of measures of ensuring that majority if the citizenry are vaccinated.
Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of 13 new members to serve on the Ghana Immigration Service Council, he said "People who speak bad about the decision to close Ghana’s borders should know that government didn’t do it unilaterally. Our neighbouring countries took similar decisions as part of efforts to curb the spread of the disease,”
The Interior Minister added that the Akufo-Addo administration is bent on seeing the Ghana Immigration Service be transformed into one of the world's top notch security service which provides more than enough security for the nation and its people.
"The erstwhile Council helped to chalk a number of successes including addressing welfare challenges. In all, more than 3,000 officers, who had been due for promotion for years, were promoted to various ranks within the past three years. To build a world class security agency, more personnel were recruited to augment the current staff and further expanded the GIS’ training facilities at Assin Fosu in the Central Region" he told the gathering.
The Minister hinted that he is confident the GIS with its sister security agency, the Ghana Police Service will together deal with counter terrorism.
"I am calling on the public to cooperate with the immigration personnel to help deal with the presence of extremist activities which may be imported into the country"
On his part, Chairman for the council, Dr. Prempeh thanked government for the opportunity to serve as Chairmanof the Council.
He assured the Minister that the new Council will come up a plan which will help GIS to deal with terrorist threats.
"I am calling for an increase in the Service’s internally generated funds retention from 15 per cent to 30 to enable GIA undertake programmes and projects aimed at ensuring effectiveness" he appealed.
The new Council will be chaired by Dr Edward Prempeh, the Managing Director of St. Edwards Clinic and founding fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians, other members of the Council include Kwame Asuah Takyi, Comptroller-General of Immigration; Adelaide Anno-Kumi, Chief Director, Ministry of the Interior; Peter R. Zwennes, representative of the Ghana Bar Association, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and Dr Millicent Degraft-Johnson, representative of the Ministry of Finance.
Samuel Ayer, Deputy Commissioner of Immigration, GIS; Louis Obeng, Director of Passports, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration; Moses K. Gyamfi, representative of the Retired Senior Immigration Officer Association; Hagar Dery, Chief Executive Officer, H/DHR & Services and Senior Inspector Michael Odame, representative of junior officers of GIS.
The rest are Thomas Ewuntomah, representative of GIS and nominees of the President including Jabaah John Bennam and Aziz Futa.
Below are some pictures:
Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith
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