Kofi Ampeah Woode
Ghana’s Military College – the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) has commenced its third edition of the Maritime Sector Governance Course 2023 (MSGC ‘23) to aid in the governance and management of marine resources, maintenance of law and order at sea, safety of navigation and transit through Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) Protection, and preservation of the Marine Environment.
GAFCSC commenced MSGC 23, as part of the modules under its prestigious 11-month Master of Science (MSc) in Defence and International Politics (MDIP) Course 44 – which matriculated on 29 September, 2022 – on Monday 13 February 2023, at the college’s Hamidu Hall, with the Chief Executive Officer, McDan Group of Companies – Dr Daniel McKorley as the Guest-of-Honour.
In a presentation, Dr McKorley said, as a stakeholder in the maritime domain, his major concern is safety and security of investment, and therefore, would be interested in measures that will address identified threats. He added that an investor would only be assured to make more investments, when the policies and arrangements put in place by all stakeholders to confront these threats are appropriate and comprehensive.
These policies, he said, should be created and filtered by highly trained personnel inspired and committed to the safety, security and advancement of the maritime domain, to efficiently and effectively manage the sector of littoral countries in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG), to protect maritime resources and interests.
Justifying the need for MSGC, Dr McKorley said efforts in addressing the needs of the maritime sector are often hampered by inappropriate institutional designs, organisational cultures, poor institutional coordination, and lack of resources, and thus, overcoming these challenges require clear strategic direction that should be articulated within an appropriate policy framework, for which reason, the Course module is relevant and appropriate.
In recent times, there has been the realisation of the vast potential that the sea and its related bodies contribute to economic development, besides the traditional fishing and oil industries, and the recognition of exclusive rights (EEZ) for the exploitation of the extensive sea areas – which in the case of Ghana, is approximately 64,000 square nautical miles.
Generally, the EEZ extends sovereign rights of a nation up to 200 nautical miles for exploitation, conservation and management of natural resources. For instance, the EEZ concept also empowers coastal states to take authoritative fishery management decisions, which control, not only the activities of one country’s nationals, but all other players in the domain.
90% of all fishes currently caught in the ocean are harvested within 200 nautical miles from the shore, which is within the EEZ. In Ghana, fish, mainly from the sea, provides over 70% of the total main source of protein for the population.
Over 80% of the world’s known and estimated hydrocarbon reserves are found in the EEZ, and in Ghana, further oil exploration is yielding new oil finds, which could soon put Ghana among the oil giants on the continent, thus, it is obvious that the EEZ would continue to form the basis for livelihoods, food security and economic development for littoral states.
For MSGC 23, GAFCSC has assembled a pool of human capital drawn from diverse professional backgrounds and experiences, with resource persons being Ghanaian experts drawn from the Military, the maritime industry and academia, and support given by the United Kingdom Government through its Defence Adviser in Accra.
86 Senior Officer/students of MDIP Course 44, (61 from GAF), from 11 allied countries – Benin, Botswana, la Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Togo, with external participants drawn from 9 government stakeholder institutions, are participants of the MSGC 23.
Dignitaries at the opening ceremony included the Fifteenth Commandant of GAFCSC – Major General Irvine Aryeetey, Assistant Commandant – Air Commodore Eric Yirenkyi, Dean of Academic Affairs – Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Chief Coordinator, Directors, Chief Instructors, Senior Research Fellows, and Directing Staff.
