Heads of some selected Law Faculties in the country have held discussions with lawmakers from Germany on how they can jointly support the strengthening of relations between Ghana and Germany in the area of legal education.
The meeting was hosted by the Dean of the Law Faculty of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Dr Kwaku Agyeman-Budu, who also had the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Professor Raymond Atuguba in attendance.
Dean of the University of Cape Coast Faculty of Law, Julia Selman Ayetey, University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School, Professor Ernest Kofi Abotsi and the Director of the Ghana School of Law, Barima Yaw Kodie Oppong were also present.
German delegation
The delegation from Germany included the German Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Daniel Krull, Sivine Jansen, Deputy Head of the German Mission to Ghana and Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, Chairperson of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Bundestag (German Parliament).
The rest of the delegation from Germany were Carmen Wegge, Esra-Leon Ruben Limbacher, Stephan Mayer, Till Steffen, Philipp Hartewig, Stephan Brandner, Clara Anne Bünger, Michael-John McCabe and Sara Hennemann.
Pledge to cooperate
The two delegations after discussing a broad range of issues bordering on the cost of legal education, standards of legal education in Ghana, accessibility and scholarships, concluded that there clearly exist avenues for greater cooperation between German legal educational institutions and those in Ghana.
The parties pledged to work together to establish a permanent partnership between law schools in the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Ghana.
Ghana – German relations
Ghana – Germany relations are good and Ghana is one of the priority countries for German development aid. Official diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in the 1950s, but contacts between the two societies go back much further and can be traced back to the 17th century.
Ghana according to the Federal Foreign Office website is a key partner in West
Africa, as is illustrated by Ghana’s inclusion in the G20 initiative Compact with Africa under the German G20 Presidency in 2017.
Reciprocal visits take place on a regular basis. Since taking office, Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo has visited Germany several times, most recently in February 2023 to participate in the Munich Security Conference, which was held in Munich, Germany.
Germany is an important trading partner for Ghana. In 2021, Germany’s imports from Ghana amounted to 284.9 million euros. The volume of German exports to Ghana was 359.2 million euros.
Machinery and chemical products are the most important exports from Germany to Ghana, and food and raw materials are the main exports from Ghana to Germany.
Germany is represented across the board in Ghana. Among Germany’s political foundations, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung currently have offices in the country. The Goethe Institute does cultural work in Accra and offers language classes.
The German business sector has maintained a Delegate Office for German
Industry and Commerce in Accra since 2011, and Germany Trade and Invest has had a representative in Accra since 2014.
The German Academic Exchange Service has an information office and guides over 40 German-Ghanaian university partnerships.
The German Government conducts a wide range of activities in Ghana. For example, it is the biggest supporter of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, which trains personnel for peacekeeping missions of the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
It also helps to train and equip the Ghanaian army and police.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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