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The Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, Sugandh Rajaram, has paid a courtesy call on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to bid him farewell after the end of his three-and-a-half years’ duty tour of the country.
He enumerated how the bilateral relations with Ghana had increased over the years and gave the assurance of the determination of India to redouble efforts to strengthen cooperation and trade for mutual and global interest.
He spoke of various initiatives and programmes that had been introduced for the bilateral interest of India and its long-standing global friend, Ghana, and noted that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries grew their trade by 50 per cent to the current tune of close to $4 billion.
“India has been a significant development partner to Ghana and would continue,” Mr Rajaram gave the assurance and added that his country had opened two lines of credit for Ghana in the areas of water projects and agricultural development.
He said as part of the cooperation and mutual interest, India had offered scholarship to 50 Ghanaians students to undertake further studies, while 50 officers of the Ghana Armed Forces had also been given the opportunity to further their training in India.
He mentioned that the two countries had commenced the Ghana-India dialogue to discuss matters of mutual interest and global concerns, more especially when the two countries recently became non-permanent members of the UN Security countries.
Mr Rajaram revealed that in all the 16 regions, the India High Commission had been able to establish India business forums to increase businesses and also initiated relations with a lot of universities in the country.
“I completed my three-and-a-half years of work with the committed support of all the ministries and in particular Ghanaians at large.
They were so forthcoming and everyone went out of their way to support our activities and initiatives,” he added.
President Akufo-Addo commended the outgoing High Commissioner for the various initiatives that culminated in strengthening the bond between the two countries.
He said he was particularly interested in the Ghana-India dialogue and cooperation.
Touching on the increase in trade relations, President Akufo-Addo said it was a clear indication of the economic ties between Ghana and India in the area of health, economy, among others, noting that those were all matters which went to the credit of the outgoing High Commissioner.
President Akufo-Addo said it had always been his hope that Prime Minister of India, Narendra Damodardas Modi, would find time to pay a visit to Africa and Ghana in particular.
