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A Ghana-Namibia Friendship Association has been launched in Accra to promote friendly relations and non-governmental co-operation between the peoples of the two countries. The association intends to promote people to people exchanges, collaborations for joint ventures, cultural exchanges, joint trade missions, networking and business contacts and educational exchange programs.

It also seeks to strengthen the bilateral relations between the governments of both countries. The Namibian High Commissioner to Ghana, His Excellency Charles Josob speaking at the launch of the association said the two countries have had a long history of friendship and the formation of the Ghana-Namibia Friendship Association only formalizes an already existing companionship.

According to him, Namibia had a lot of assistance from the international community in the lead up to their independence in 1990 and Ghana has since remained a supportive ally.

The High Commissioner expressed his country’s appreciation to Ghana for the many collaborations the latter has undertaken with Namibia. He mentioned among many other things how Namibian students trained in Ghana and how their security agencies keep benefiting from Ghana’s expertise through collaborations.

His Excellency Charles Josob was optimistic that the launch of the association will foster an even deeper partnership and contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic development of both countries.

He said Namibians are naturally friendly as their independence from South African colonial rule was backed by the international community and the assistance received prior to the birth of the country has made them naturally hospitable people.

Former president Jerry Rawlings who launched the association mentioned that more Namibians were travelling to Ghana to do business and visit tourist sites. He however encouraged Ghana to learn from Namibia’s strides in developing a viable tourism development framework that has helped them build a thriving tourism industry which is a major revenue earner and one of the best on the continent.

The former president was full of praise for the High Commission for its vision in mooting the idea of the friendship association and seeing to its successful execution. He charged the leadership of the association to be innovative and work to ensure the realization of its objectives.

A deputy foreign affairs minister, Hon Mohammed Habib Tijani also present at the event lauded the initiative and suggested that the association should work to encourage cultural exchanges and interaction between the peoples of the two countries to help promote trade and integration.

Chairman of the Ghana-Namibia Friendship Association, His Excellency Haruna Atta, Ghana’s immediate past High Commissioner to Namibia described the already existing friendship between the two countries as very cordial.

The event was put together by the Namibian mission in Ghana with assistance from hype-up an event planning entity.

Namibia officially established their mission in Ghana some three years ago. Namibia has a population of about 2.4 million people and a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy.