Quality training critical to Ghana’s aviation sector’s growth – Minister to Aviation Training Organizations

23rd Jan 2020 | Emmanuel Kojo Tornyi

The Minister of Aviation, Joseph Kofi Adda, has emphasized the importance of quality aviation training to the growth of the aviation industry in Ghana.

According to him, the quality of aviation training facilities remained essential to the sustainability of the industry in Ghana and Africa.

He made this known when the executives and members of the Ghana Association of Aviation Training Organizations (GAATO) paid a courtesy call on him on January 17, 2020, to wish him a happy new year and deliberate on the association’s programs for the year.

Joseph Kofi Adda, on behalf of the Aviation Ministry, welcomed the GAATO executives and the members.
He congratulated the executives on a successful inauguration and thanked them for being the first stakeholders to visit his ministry this year.

He said it was up to the association to draw their attention to what needed to be done because “there are gaps in the system that we need to work on “.  He further stated that there was the need to seek support “from high and other ministries to help the training organizations grow”.

The Minister asked the association if any training institution had some specialized training, for example, Air Traffic Control courses and the president of GAATO, Charles Twum answered in the affirmative that the Ghana Civil Aviation Training Academy did and that they train for some countries in West Africa.
Charles Twum, on his part, spoke about the 9 programs/events GAATO wanted to run for the general public and stakeholders in the year 2020 and the support needed from the ministry to make it successful.
Some of the programs are, meeting stakeholders in the industry, open forum and bridging the gap between academia, aviation stakeholders, aviation training organizations and other industry players, etc.

Joseph Adda, however, stipulated that their duty as the government was to put down policies and in the case of the association, policy in terms of funding. “Ideally the ministry must have some funding for the programs stated in their budget for the year”, he said.

The managing director of Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), Yaw Kwakwa promised the association of GACL’s unflinching support in their activities.

The meeting was attended by Joseph Kofi Adda (Minister for Aviation), Yaw Afful (Deputy Minister of Aviation), Christina Edmond (Acting Chief Director of MOA) and other directors at the ministry, Yaw Kwakwa (MD Ghana Airports Company Limited), Charles Twum (President, GAATO), Daniel F. Buckman (Treasurer, GAATO), Elizabeth Twumwaa Sasu (Programmes Director/Organizer, GAATO), Harry O. Frimpong (Secretary, GAATO), Patrick Annakwah (Administrative & Event Planning Committee) and other members of the association.

Source: gh-aviation