President John Dramani Mahama says he wants Ghana to have its own national airline flying again before his time in office is up.
Main image: DGBN graphic. Photo: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Speaking in Moscow on Tuesday, where the Russian University of Transport awarded him an honorary doctorate, Mr Mahama said work to rebuild the carrier was under way. “It is my hope that before I leave office we will have Ghana Airways back in the air,” he said, according to CitiNewsroom and Adom Online.
Graphic Online reported that he is the first sitting head of state to receive an honour from the university. The ceremony took place in the institution’s main auditorium before members of its academic senate, Ghanaian officials, students and diplomats.
The president did not give a launch date, budget, fleet size or partner for the airline, and no further detail on the plan was published on Tuesday.
Part of a wider transport push
Mr Mahama placed the airline plan within a broader drive to modernise Ghana’s transport network. He pointed to the expansion of airports and seaports, the reconstruction of major roads and work on the railway system. “New freight trains and the expansion of our railway network are also ongoing,” he said.
He described transport as an engine of national development, linking communities, easing trade and widening access to jobs and business opportunities.
He also called for closer ties between Ghanaian and Russian institutions in transport engineering, railway development, logistics, road safety and traffic management, arguing that Ghana needs more specialist skills to run a modern system. According to Graphic Online, he noted that only one Ghanaian student is currently enrolled at the university, and said Ghana is also weighing nuclear power to meet the energy needs of industrialisation.
Mr Mahama is in Moscow for the Russia-Africa Summit, where he is expected to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin.
A long-grounded ambition
Ghana Airways, the country’s flag carrier founded shortly after independence, stopped flying in 2005 after years of mounting financial trouble. Successive governments have since promised a new national airline, but none has yet taken off, leaving Ghanaian travellers reliant on foreign and regional carriers for most international routes.
Why it matters
For Ghana’s large diaspora in the UK, the US and across the Caribbean, a national carrier is about more than convenience. Direct, home-owned links to Accra are seen by many as a matter of pride, a boost to tourism and investment, and a way to keep more of the money spent on travel inside the country.
The pledge also adds to a wider African debate on whether governments should back flag carriers or leave the skies to private and foreign airlines. Ghanaians will now be watching for a concrete plan, a funding model and a timeline. DGBN has previously reported on Mr Mahama’s call for Africa to treat health as an investment, not charity.