President John Dramani Mahama has donated quantities of made-in-Ghana products to three West African countries which have been affected by the Ebola disease.
He made the donation on behalf of the government and the people of Ghana during a one-day visit to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea yesterday.
The value of the items was not known at the time of filing this report.
The one-day visit provided the platform for President Mahama, who is also the Chairman of ECOWAS, to hold discussions with his colleague Heads of State on sub-regional and international interventions in
support of efforts at containing and managing the Ebola outbreak.
Mr Mahama’s first stop was Monrovia, Liberia, where he held closed-door bilateral discussions with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.
He then continued to Sierra Leone and ended the visit in Guinea.
The President appeared disturbed about the situation on the ground.
Nonetheless, he was confident that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Concerns
Addressing journalists later, President Mahama expressed concern over the delay by donor organisations in redeeming their pledges in support of the governments of countries affected by the Ebola
disease.
“There are a few things that I think need to come to the attention of international organisations. A lot of money has been pledged but most of it is not on the ground yet and being put into effect. We need to
speed up the roll out of all these pledges.
“The processes in terms of budgeting and putting in procurement are quite cumbersome and so if we can speed them up, it will help greatly,” he explained.
President Mahama said “aside from that, most of the international organisations that have pledged assistance are using proxy and non-governmental organisations and are reluctant to put the money in the
hands of the governments themselves”.
With some airlines discontinuing flights into the three countries, President Mahama has been leading a strong advocacy against any international isolation of the affected countries, as it will make relief and
humanitarian assistance to infected persons difficult.
The President has already decided to work with the United Nations to set up an international logistics centre in Accra to serve as the main hub for the fight against Ebola in the West African subregion.
He also observed that the apparent reluctance of international organisations to deal directly with governments was making it difficult to prosecute the agenda to bring the disease under control.
“So, even though there are non-governmental organisations and international humanitarian organisations working on the ground, I think the governments need some resources to carry out public education,
mobilise the task forces that do the burials and generally finance the countries’ response to the disease,” he added.
{module share}
