Aviation Minister offers safety and job security assurance to airports staff

The Aviation Minister Joseph Kofi Adda has assured management and staff of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) of their safety of work and that government has no intention of selling or privatizing parts of the state owned airports in the country.

“The current expansion of the airport project infrastructure will get us to open up the economy to get a lot of things done because more people will be needed to work, more staff to be trained, more engineers and people who have managed airports will be needed,” he said.

“This is fitting well with the agenda of the President to create jobs for the people. So why will somebody in the right state of mind think that the government of Ghana is going to sell the airport and take people off their jobs? That are totally not true,” he added.

The sector Minister made the assurance when he met with the management and staff of GCAA and GACL as part of his two-day working visit to the Tamale airport in the Northern Region and the Wa airstrip in the Upper West Region to ascertain the progress of works executed at the sites to enhance infrastructure for smooth aviation business.

He stressed that government is currently making efforts to secure more funding to expand the airport projects to enhance socio-economic activities and the welfare of staff saying the ministry and government would not interfere with the activities of the two organisations but liaise with them to address the needs to sustain the sector.

“We are one family in the aviation and airport company and so for any decision to be taken on business development or policy wise that would affect the livelihoods of staff and future, management and staff would be involved or a consensus decision and so you should rest assured of your safety at work. No one would be expelled from work,” he said.

To make Ghana an aviation hub, the ministry, he said, is working on a vision of government to develop a policy known as ‘Aviation Development Agenda’, which would transform the economy of Ghana.

He explained that the current state of the Tamale airport called for an expansion for bigger hangers for bigger aircrafts, terminal building of about 54m x54m, and other facilities to boost aviation business that would require more staff to work in the sector.

“We are not selling any airport in Ghana, government has no plan to sell any airport infrastructure and we are not privatizing any airport management,” he stated. He stressed that government acknowledges the effort and commitment of citizens in building a better future.

This is an aviation hub, he noted, where lots of activities would take place and also require more hands to work and that no worker would be sacked instead we need more workers because the government is going to create more jobs for Ghanaians.

He appealed to management and staff to corporate with government to embark on the development agenda for the nation and citizens.