He said Ms Yukari's achievement has brought honour to both Japan and the foreign volunteer community in Ghana.Mr Makino gave the commendation in Tamale during his three-day official tour of JICA funded projects in the Northern Region.

Ms Fukuyama Yukari, who is also a Japanese national, arrived in Ghana on July 2, 2015 to start her volunteerism in the Tamale Metropolis,  her area of expertise is primary school teaching.

Her assignment would be ending on March 17, 2016.

Some of the activities she had carried out so far include an easy way of teaching the multiplication with song for class three pupils of Wataniya Arabic Primary School, Tamale. Others are teaching of paper crafts for both pupils and teachers to be used as Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) for effective teaching and learning.

Mr Makino said currently, there are 83 Japanese volunteers; with young volunteers constituting 78 and five senior volunteers throughout the country.

He said out of the total number of 83, 45 were females and 38 males.

The Country Representative said Ghana's quota of volunteers from Japan this year is the highest in the world; stating that Ghana has been the highest beneficiary over the past decade.

He announced that JOCV would be celebrating its 40th anniversary next year, since the first batch of volunteers came to Ghana in 1977.He said, so far over 1,300 Japanese volunteers have provided services to different communities in Ghana. Mr Makino also paid a working visit to Nanton-Zuo Primary School, Tamale; which was built by JICA, where Ms Fukuyama Yukari was volunteering.

An elated Ms Fukuyama Yukari expressed gratitude to JOCV and the Japanese Government for giving her the opportunity to serve in Ghana. Mr Issahaque Abdulai, the Personnel Officer of the Tamale Metropolis Education Directorate, who is also in-charge of JICA Education Projects in the Metropolis, said the collaboration between JICA and the Metropolis dates back to July 14, 1989, when the first volunteer was received.

He said since then, 15 volunteers have been dispatched to the Metropolis.

Mr Christopher Dery, the Deputy Tamale Metropolis Director in-charge of Planning and Statistics, lauded Japan for the volunteerism initiative. He appealed to the Japanese Government scale-up the number of volunteers for the Tamale Metropolis.Mr Abdul's A. Samiyu, the Head Teacher of Nanton-Zuo Zion Primary School, hailed Japan for establishing the school for the community.

He also praised the volunteers for accepting posting to depraved communities like Nanton-Zuo. Launched in 1965, the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) is a unique cooperation scheme of JICA,  in which, young Japanese volunteers have been dispatched to work and live in developing countries for a two-year service term.

The objective of the scheme is to assist the process of socio-economic development in the recipient countries. Since JICA Volunteers scheme started, nearly 49,000 volunteers have been dispatched to countries all over the world.

The exchange of notes which paved the way for the establishment of the JOCV in Ghana was signed on February 17,1977, the first batch of volunteers was dispatched to Ghana, which consisted science and mathematics teachers, one vegetable growing volunteer and one rice cultivation volunteer.