The envoy and A.R. Gomda
The Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Ghana, Meshal Alroji, has described the ongoing $20m Saudi-funded rehabilitation and expansion of the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital as evidence of beneficial relationship between his country and his host country.
Speaking to the DAILY GUIDE yesterday in an exclusive interview, the envoy said that the project followed the signing of an agreement between his country’s government and Ghana in September 2019.
Under the agreement, the Saudi fund will equip the facility with world-class gadgets and equipment and accommodation for staff.
The project is expected to be completed by next year and handed over to the Government of Ghana, he announced.
The cordial relationship between the two countries has led to Ghana becoming, as he put it, “one of the Kingdom’s development aid priority destinations in the West African sub-region.”
Many Ghanaian professionals, he said, are beneficiaries of Saudi scholarships which enabled them to study in the Kingdom in various disciplines.
Such scholarship packages are still available for qualified Ghanaian applicants irrespective of their religions, he told DAILY GUIDE.
Regarding the development aid priority status he referred to earlier, he said that “the Saudi Fund for Development and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center have both made several donations to boost certain important areas of Ghana’s development such as road, medical delivery and education and welfare projects such as donations of date fruits and food baskets.”
The relationship between the two countries, he said, dates back to March 1960, a time he added when the two countries accredited their respective ambassadors to Cairo and Lagos to each other’s capital as a first step. With the improvement in bilateral relations between the two countries, he said the Ghanaian government established a Consulate General in Jeddah in 1988, and by 2003 Saudi Arabia upgraded her mission in Accra to an ambassadorial status.
On the world stage, he said that Saudi Arabia is very strategic country emerging as the only Middle Eastern country in the G20 group large economies. This, coupled with Ghana’s location in West Africa, has contributed to both countries enjoying a harmonious and mutual relationship in spite of language differences.
The annual pilgrimage to Mecca by Ghanaian Muslims, he said, also contributed to the establishment of Ghana’s missions in Saudi Arabia to facilitate the pilgrimage.
On the trade volumes between the two countries, he observed it is low, but was quick to add that efforts are underway to establish the necessary framework to reverse the trend.
Ghana and Saudi Arabia, he said, are communicating through diplomatic channels to sign an avoidance of double taxation to step up foreign direct investments.
By A.R. Gomda