About the High Commission
The resident Mission in Ghana was officially opened on 20 March 2015 following the Commissioning of Mr. Charles B. Josob by His Excellency Hifikepunye Pohamba on 12 November 2014 and his subsequent presentation of the Letters of Commission to His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana on 05 February 2015.
Ghana was previously served by the non-resident Namibian High Commissioners from the Federal Republic of Nigeria since the reciprocal establishment of diplomatic relations soon after independence.
The Mission is concurrently accredited to the Republics of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.
The primary objective of the Mission is to pursue bilateral and trade relations with the countries of accreditation as well as to collaborate with friendly nations within that domain towards achieving greater benefits for humanity.
The other objective is to serve and satisfy the consular needs of Namibians in these territories as well as to provide immigration and information services to individuals and entities that may wish to engage Namibia and her people in a number of areas including tourism, trade, education and many other areas of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
The Mission continues to engage Chambers of Commerce on both sides as well as other Chambers that seek to serve collective interest of sectors in both Namibia, Ghana and indeed the other countries of concurrent accreditation.
The objectives of the Mission can further be summarized as follows:
- To promote, strengthen and maintain the bilateral relations between Namibia and countries the Mission is accredited to.
- To protect the national interest of Namibia as defined in the Constitution, Vision 2030, National Development Plans, and the Harambee Prosperity Plan.
- To promote Namibia’s Foreign Policy as defined under Article 96 of Namibia Constitution. Advance economic, cultural, technical and scientific interests.
Ghana, where the Mission is based represents a market of 25 million people. The other countries add 54 million people giving a total of 79 Million people for the countries of the Mission's accreditation. West Africa is a total market of about 340 million people.
Namibia has a number of commodities that it can market in this region including our meat, fish, beer, salt, tourism and ultimately our skills.
Ghana, Ivory Coast and perhaps Togo will all soon be regarded as important petroleum exporting countries though all of them have a few primary commodities as major exports. All the countries of accreditation are forested countries with the exception of Burkina Faso. All of them are coastal state except Burkina Faso. Oil, gas, cocoa, timber, marine products and biodiversity are amongst some the comparative advantages of the six countries of accreditation.
Namibia is a gateway to SADC and Ghana is equally a gateway to ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). Namibia has already positioned herself in this regard through the development of corridors linking the port of Walvis Bay to the other SADC Countries. This development will be further enhanced with the enlargement of the Port. Business must pursue opportunities that these developments offer and the individual and collective trade and cooperation potential of the countries of accreditation.
A number of agreements listed below have been signed and some have already been implemented through the ongoing cooperation between Ghana and Namibia:
- Agreement on the Establishment of the Joint Permanent Commission of Cooperation.
- Agreement on Cultural and Scientific Cooperation.
- Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation.
- MoU on Military Cooperation.
- Bilateral Air Services Agreement /Open Skies Agreement.
- Agreement on Visa Exemption for Diplomatic and Official Passports.
- MoU on the Holding of Diplomatic and Political Consultations at Ministerial level.
High Commission of Namibia to Republic of Ghana
Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation
