The British High Commissioner His Excellency Iain Walker is expected to open the newly refurbished ECOWAS Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre (MMCC) Zone F Operations and Training Rooms.
The facility funded by the United Kingdom is to be commissioned at the MMCC Zone F Headquarters, Christianborg Castle, Osu-Accra on February 10, 2020.
The High Commissioner will be in the company of Deputy Minister of Defence of Ghana, Derrick Oduro, and a number of Senior Ghanaian Military officers.
The ceremony will also mark the beginning of a two-week human development course on the subject of Maritime Domain Awareness, being delivered in conjunction with the United Kingdom.
The training program is one of the many partnerships and collaborations between the UK Government and Zone F states as well as the shipping industry.
ABOUT THE TWO WEEK COURSE
The two-week ECOWAS MMCC Zone F course will feature instructors from the Royal Navy, UK Police and Border Force Officers.
Beneficiaries of the course will be staff and operators from the MMCC and National Maritime Operation Centres (MOCs), with 32 students from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo attending.
Areas of concentration will include providing Maritime Law enforcement officials, cross-border staff and commercial maritime actors with the skills to monitor, gather information and profile of vessels of interest.
These include merchant vessels, fishing vessels, oil and gas platforms and support vessels.
This trusted network of personnel with enhanced skills in maritime threat comprehension and communication will be able to help the regional fight against maritime criminality and support the work of maritime law enforcement and regulatory agencies in the Gulf of Guinea.
ABOUT UK-GHANA DEFENCE COOPERATION
The UK and Ghana are close, long-standing defence partners. Our modern defence partnership is helping to preserve border and maritime security in the region, underpinning Ghana’s ambitions as a regional economic hub, and bringing security to Africa through international peacekeeping efforts.
The UK has a long and proud history with the Ghana Navy and recognises the crucial role it has to play as a regional leader in Maritime Security, and as host to the ECOWAS MMCC Zone F.
Its work, and the close cooperation between Ghana and its ECOWAS coastal neighbours, has been strengthened further since the signing of the ECOWAS Maritime Zone F Memorandum of Understanding, in July.