MPs from Zambia to focus on patrol in correctional facilities in African countries
Ghana to deepen its relationship with Zambia
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has urged other countries in Africa to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and provide skills and opportunities for trade for the majority youth population on the continent.
She explained that the AfCFTA Secretariat is a great opening for countries to begin to trade among themselves, rather than the existing practices of sending businesses outside the continent.
She expressed her hope that with the young population on the continent, should this be pursued, it would go a long way to enhance the goals of the secretariat and its overall ideology.
“Today, we all can boast of the African Continental Free Trade that is operational in all our countries. Ghana hosts the secretariat and we are looking at ensuring that we trade among ourselves. Africa has a very young population; we need to provide our young people who come out of schools with jobs. Those who are not able to go to tertiary education, we need necessarily to provide them with skills and so for us, it’s important that this free trade area secretariat has come, which is giving us that platform to be able to trade among ourselves because most of our trade is with the outside world and it’s not the best,” she stressed.
Addressing an 11-member parliamentary delegation of the Committee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the National Assembly of Zambia when they paid a courtesy call on her, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey added that the longstanding relationship between Ghana and Zambia is one that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cherishes.
“Ghana and Zambia go a long way to the point where not just the role that Ghana played in the liberation struggle of Zambia, but also in terms of providing Zambia with teachers. A lot of Zambians I meet in high places talk about how they were taught be Ghanaian teachers and so, we have been very close and I’m hoping that this visit will draw us even closer. At the level of the executive, I believe that President Akufo-Addo and your former president, President Lungu and President Hichilema are on very good friendly terms and a lot has been going on in nurturing that friendship for it to bear fruits,” she said.
On his part, Brig. Gen Morgan Sitwala (Rtd), the leader of the delegation, said they are in the country as part of a routine tour to share and learn from other countries and their parliaments.
“Like many other parliaments, we are on break in Zambia and normally, we have these benchmarking tours to make us learn and share with our sister parliaments. It’s for this reason that we find ourselves in your beautiful country,” he said.
He added that the focus of their visit this year is on patrol in correctional services on the continent.
“We look at a certain interest in our committee and for this break, we’re looking at patrol as the subject in our correctional services… we are also visiting our embassy just to learn and find out how they’re faring and the problems that they may have, with the view that when we get back home, we’re able to share with our government and we should be able to see how we continuously improve on their stay and welfare here,” he added.
The delegation will be in the country for five days.
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Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey received the 11-member delegation to her office on Monday