The historic Saudi-Ghana relations

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Ghana has very long-standing friendly relations which started since 1960’s following the latter’s independence.

The relations continue to grow and has brought in its wake many developmental cooperation including infrastructure, hundreds of scholarships to eligible Ghanaian students to study both locally and abroad in fields that extend beyond religion to include the sciences and arts in various Public Universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Possible areas of cooperation

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic are both endowed with several areas of developmental cooperation. Sectors such as Agriculture, oil and gas, tourism and education are very promising sectors the two countries need to step up efforts to build to ensure mutual growth of both countries.

It is also delighting to highlight that, the historic friendly relations enjoyed by both states has yielded into many infrastructural developments for the friendly of Ghana.

The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) has supported many infrastructural projects in Ghana such as the expansion and rehabilitation of the Bolgatanga Hospital with a loan grant of about $20m.

The SFD also financed several other projects such as the Kpone Hydro-Electric Power, Tema and Takoradi Seaports Renovation, Northern Regions Grid Power Extension, TettehQuarshie-Mamfe Road, the Accra College of Science, Construction of trauma and Acute Care Center of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra (Phase I) and others totaling (466.66m Saudi Riyals) ($124,269m).

The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief) has made donation of medical equipment and an annual donation of 50tonnes of the date fruits since 2013 to date to the friendly Government of Ghana to support Ghanaian Muslims during the Ramadan fast.

Bilateral Trade

Both countries are making giant efforts to make bilateral trade promising and enticing to investors as well as to soar up trade volumes.

It is recounted that during the visit of the Ghanaian Honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs Ms. Shirley AyorkorBotchwey to Riyadh in January 2020, the honorable Minister met with a number of highly-profiled Saudi Investors and wooed them to invest in Ghana.

In response to the Hon. Minister’s gesture, a highly-powered Saudi-business delegation was scheduled to embark on an exploratory investment visit to Ghana had it not being the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus pandemic and subsequent imposition of travel restrictions.

However, with ease in travel restrictions, appropriate plans are underway to get this visit to materialize. This would create an appropriate forum for interactions between Saudi investors and the Ghanaian business community Insha Allah.

The Author is the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Ghana, H.E Meshal Alrogi