The Ambassador of the Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, His Excellency Teferi Fikre Gossaye, has paid a working visit to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo.
H.E Gossaye in brief remarks, expressed appreciation for the warm reception and indicated his delight in visiting the University. He outlined the purpose of the meeting, disclosing plans to explore opportunities for establishing a connection between the University of Ghana and the African Leadership Excellence Academy (AFLEX), alongside considering the signing of an MoU to formalise the comprehensive cooperation between the two institutions. This he said will aim at collectively addressing leadership and development challenges in Africa.
His Excellency Teferi Fikre Gossaye
The African Leadership Excellence Academy (AFLEX) is an institution reestablished in June, 2021 by the Council of Ministers, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to provide various learning opportunities to national government leaders. The academy expects systemic-level leadership change through its gradual cultivation of a future generation of leaders and executives in Africa who share a common vision and work culture. Through leadership policy research and advisory functions, the academy aspires to influence leaders in the public, private and civic society sectors to shape and gravitate their policies and leadership structure into a meritocratic, youth-inclined and gender-balanced direction.
The Ambassador emphasised the importance of mobilising resources like human expertise across countries to build leadership capacity in public and private sectors across the continent. He also highlighted the potential of utilising AFLEX as a platform to connect senior universities and institutions, fostering collaboration to collectively tackle leadership and development challenges in Africa.
Ambassador Gossaye finally stated, “We have various strategic documents, including reform pillars and other related materials. I will share these documents with the relevant stakeholders to explore how we can establish a significant presence for the Academy in Ghana and across Africa as we aim to create an environment conducive to understanding how we can enhance mutual benefits, particularly in terms of human resource mobilisation”.
In her response, Prof. Amfo expressed the University's willingness to embrace opportunities for collaboration not only within academia but beyond to generate meaningful impact on societies. She stressed the multitude of resources available for mutual benefit among Africans, highlighting the lack of extensive collaborations between the University of Ghana and Ethiopian universities.
Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo
Prof. Amfo conveyed her deep passion for leadership development and nurturing the next generation of leaders through initiatives like the proposed leadership academy. She expressed her eager anticipation in receiving the official documents and formally signing the Memorandum of Understanding.
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Academic and Student Affairs, Prof. Gordon Awandare, in his closing remarks expressed interest in the potential collaboration between the University of Ghana and the African Leadership Excellence Academy.
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Academic and Student Affairs, Prof. Gordon Awandare (left) and Dr. Elizier Ameyaw-Buronyah, Director, Public Affairs Directorate (right)
He believes that partnering with the African Leadership Excellence Academy aligns well with the University's vision of developing excellence in leadership through institutions and looks forward to further exploring the mutual benefits of the partnership.
Also in attendance were Dr. Elizier Ameyaw-Buronyah, Director, Public Affairs Directorate and Ms. Pascaline Songsore, Senior Assistant Registrar, also at the Directorate. Accompanying the Ambassador was Hirut Eshetu, Consul for Diaspora Affairs at the Embassy of Ethiopia.
