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Government is looking at possible collaboration with the Canadian Government on potential areas of partnership to improve on the aviation sector and to make Ghana the aviation hub of West Africa.

Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, the Minister of Aviation, said Canada has a good track record and history in doing well in the aviation sector, particularly in the manufacturing of aircrafts.

Mr Adda said this when Mrs Heather Cameron, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana called on him at his office in Accra on Friday.

“The Canadian Government is a good partner to collaborate with in moving the aviation sector forward,” he said.

He said it is very clear to the world now that the President Nana Akufo Addo has made Aviation a very priority sector, because of the potential impact it could make on the economy.

Mr Adda said in conferring with the High Commissioner, the two countries discussed the possible acquisition of some aircrafts onto the fleet of the home based carrier.

The Minister said the Canadian Government also has some credit facilities that could be made available to government to be able to purchase these aircrafts.

“We also discussed support in capacity building in the aviation sector as we move away from the airline activities to support activities like training of pilots, crew members among others,” he said.
Mr Adda said Canada manufactures simulator equipment, which is needed to support the capacity building in setting up the training academy services of the aircraft.

He said the two countries have a long history of collaboration in various sectors of the economy, especially the financial side of the economy where they supported in financial reforms.

“They also support sanitation and water reforms, especially in the northern part of the country,” he said.

On the signing of the shareholders agreement in terms of the Home-Based carrier, the Minister said they were reviewing the business plan and re-doing the numbers and projections to look at the value of the investment required and ones that was done in the next few week, it would be completed in February.

On the number of fleets to commence the home-based carrier, he said, they were looking at getting four aircrafts from Ethiopian Airlines and four from Canada but all depends on the time negotiations were done and the final board would decide the final number.’