Ghana And South Africa Sign Agreements

Ghana and South Africa signed Memoranda of Understanding today to leverage cooperation as part of President Jacob Zuma's three-day state visit to Ghana. The agreements included cooperation on Air Service and Transport which was signed by Mrs Dzifa Attivor, Minister for Transport and Mrs Dipuo Peters, South African Minister of Transport. That of cooperation on Electricity and Energy was signed by Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah and Mr Ben Martins, Ministers for Energy for Ghana and South Africa respectively. The ceremonies were witnessed by President John Dramani Mahama and South Africa President Jacob Zuma. In a media briefing, President Mahama said he and his South African counterpart had held meetings that bordered on peace and security on the entire African continent and commended President Zuma for his role in ensuring peace and security in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, as well as Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. On the agreements, President Mahama said South Africa had the biggest economy in Africa, and that there was the need to cooperate with it to share knowledge and experiences. He said Ghana had a comparative advantage in the production of energy for both domestic consumption and export and would therefore continue to partner others to achieve their energy goals. President Mahama said Ghana was expected to meet its energy production target of 5,000 megawatts and would therefore step up its export to neighbouring countries such as Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia. On transport, President Mahama said the current situation where African nationals had to travel to other countries before they could connect with countries on the continent was unacceptable and called for an integration that would ensure effective and smooth air service within the continent.