A 2-day working visit by the Director-General of the Danish Maritime Authority to Ghana and the Ghana Maritime Authority ended on Thursday 31st October 2024 with a landmark event to celebrate the successes of the Strategic Sector Cooperation (SSC) on maritime affairs between Ghana and Denmark.

Present at the event were officials from the Danish Maritime Authority and the Embassy of Denmark in Ghana. Officials from the Ghanaian side included all the relevant maritime stakeholders that are part of the SSC including the Ghana Maritime Authority (led by the Director-General), Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority, Ghana Navy, Volta Lake Transport Company, and the Ministry of Transport.

Beneficiary institutions under the SSC took turns to extol the successes chalked in the areas of Green Shipping, E-navigtion and Safety on Lake Volta, STCW and STCW-F implementation, and capacity development for IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS).  Emphasis was placed on improvements in the execution of organizational mandates through relevant capacity building programs and sharing of the best industry practices under the cooperation. However, as the current SSC is coming to an end in the 1st quarter of 2025, there was a strong appeal for the continuation of the cooperation in order to sustain the gains made and chart a course of transformational areas of common interests in the maritime sector.

The event climaxed with the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) by Mr. Thomas Alonsi, Director-General of GMA and Mr. Andreas Nordseth, Director-General of DMA on behalf of Ghana and Denmark respectively. The MoU would guide future cooperation between the two countries on maritime affairs within a framework that is yet to be established.