British High Commissioner Iain Walker bids Ghana farewell

Iain Walker has ended his tour of duty as the British High Commissioner to Ghana.

The Diplomat officially disclosed this to Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, when he paid a courtesy call on the minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional integration.

Mr Walker was appointed British High Commissioner to Ghana in August 2017. Prior to that, he served as a Board Member of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London as its Director of Finance and Strategy.

In a remark during the meeting, Ms Botchwey congratulated Mr. Walker on the successful completion of his official tour of duty.

She further acknowledged that bilateral relations between Ghana and the United Kingdom witnessed active engagements and growth during the tenure of the High Commissioner, who discharged his duties creditably with a high sense of purpose and tenacity.

The minister also applauded the High Commissioner for his exemplary work, which resulted in a number of high-level official visits to Ghana, including the visit by the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in November 2018, James Duddridge (MP), Minister for Africa at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom, in January 2021. Other visits were by Mr. James Heappey, UK Minister for Armed Forces in February 2021 and the just-ended visit of Priti Patel, UK Secretary of State for Home Department from 1st to 2nd June 2021.

She mentioned that Ghana and the UK have signed the Interim Trade Partnership Agreement, which is expected to provide duty-free and quota-free access for Ghana to the UK market and the same preferential tariff reductions for British exporters into the Ghanaian market while adding that relations between Ghana and the UK in the area of security has moved a notch higher during his tenure of office and applauded the instrumentality of the High Commissioner in the establishment of the Ghana-UK Business Council in 2018 to promote bilateral relations and strategic partnerships between the private sectors of Ghana and UK trade and investment.

On the issue of the global pandemic, Ms Botchwey expressed appreciation to the High Commissioner for his efforts in ensuring UK support for Ghana’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the UK’s pledge of a £450,000 support package to help Ghana's Pharmaceutical Sector to adapt and build back better in the wake of COVID-19 and its commitment to continue to offer public health epidemiological modelling support while affirming to the High Commissioner that the government of Ghana will cooperate and support his successor to further consolidate Ghana-UK relations.