President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the country values the contribution of Rotary International to national development.

He noted that the organisation had spread its support to many areas in both national and international arenas including the critical areas of education, health and social services.

President Akufo-Addo stated this when the President of Rotary International 2020-2021, Mr Shekhar Mehta, paid a courtesy call on him at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday.

Mr Mehta was accompanied by some members of the Rotary International, Ghana, including Mr Sam Okudzeto and Mr Adotei Brown.
President Akufo-Addo was made an honorary member of Rotary International.

Major achievement

President Akufo-Addo expressed excitement at the fact that through the efforts of Rotary International, Africa was free from polio.

He described the development as a major achievement of Rotary’s contribution to the fight against the disease.

Touching on COVID-19, he welcomed the decision of the organisation to support in fighting vaccination hesitancy and also back the vaccination process.

“Your focus on the fight against COVID-19, especially, in the vaccination was appropriate in these times,” he said.

The President indicated that Ghana had been waiting for the Serum Institute of India to export vaccines to support the country’s target to vaccinate 20 million of the population by the end of the year as part of the measures geared towards attaining herd immunity.

President Akufo-Addo recounted recent shortages of the vaccines in some countries while others had been hoarding them, stressing that increasingly the situation was getting better.

He, therefore, welcomed Rotary International’s efforts towards making a case for equity.

The President said equity was important because when some had the vaccines and others were deprived of them, it would mean that everybody would continue to be exposed to the virus.

He added that it would be better for all to be vaccinated to prevent the virus from spreading.

Experience

Briefing the President, Mr Mehta indicated that based on the experience of Rotary International with polio vaccinations around the world, the organisation was best placed to help countries all over the globe to address the issue of vaccine hesitancy among their populations.

That help, he explained, was necessary considering that the fight against COVID-19 could only be won if the whole world got vaccinated.

"Currently, Rotary is working a lot on COVID-19 issues and we are here to offer our help, if there is anyway this will be possible,” he said.