The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) supported by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and Government of Denmark, has held a consultative workshop in Koforidua on Tuesday for stakeholders in the service to draft its new strategic plan for the period 2023 to 2027/2029.
The aim of workshop, attended by management members of the GIS, Regional Commanders and other key participants, was to discuss the previous strategic plan, highlight good practices, lessons learnt, and challenges encountered to enable them to build on the new strategic plan.
The new plan would build on the successes chalked and improve upon the limitations that hindered the successful implementation of the 2018 to 2022 Strategic Plan that will end on December 31, this year.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the Comptroller General of the GIS, Mr Kwame Asuah Takyi, said a well-defined plan would help the service with its planning, implementation and evaluation of operational activities, projects and programmes for the coming years.
“Furthermore, it will allow us to better measure our performances and adjust in a timely and effective manner where necessary, with the aim of achieving our desired goals,” he said.
He, therefore, expressed his profound gratitude to the ICMPD and the government of Denmark for their continuous support to the service by launching the Support to Free Migration of Persons and Migration in West Africa (SSMIG) project and the Strengthening Boarder Security (SBS) project which provided technical support and helped greatly in the implementation of the previous 2018-2022 strategic plan.
“The projects helped in the areas of training in document fraud detection, and provision of equipment in this regard, training in health/infection prevention and control, ICT, Investigation and Prosecution, Gender mainstreaming among others,” he stated.
He enumerated a number successes chalked by the service including several acquiring the necessary human resource, noting that a little over 100 people were recruited into the service, residential and office accommodation for regional commanders, patrolling vehicles for surveillance into boarders and hinterland.
Mr Takyi, however, said that the emergence of COVID-19 had hit hard on the previous strategic plan and caused some challenges, adding that the new strategic plan would build on those challenges.
He reminded them that the strategic plan was an institutional document to guide the aspirations of the service for the development of the country, and therefore tasked them to contribute meaningfully to achieve the visions of the government.
For her part, the Project Manager of ICMPD, Amala Obiokoye-Nwalor, said her outfit was committed to supporting the personnel of the GIS to bring their expertise on board on where they want to get to in the next five to seven years.
FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA
