Ghana’s Transport Minister, Mr. Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, has been elected the first Ghanaian Chairman of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA).

He was elected during the 8th Session of the Bureau of Ministers and 15th Ordinary Session of the General Assembly of MOWCA in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Ministers in charge of Transport and Maritime in the Republic of Congo and the Gambia were elected 1st Vice Chair and 2nd Vice Chair respectively. The Central African Republic was also elected as the Rapporteur.

Mr. Asiamah will oversee the affairs of the organisation made up of 25 countries in the West and Central Africa for the next two years.

MOWCA was established in May 1975 and headquartered in Abidjan, La Cote d’Ivoire, primarily to formulate and implement policies and strategies to enhance maritime transport services, maritime safety and security, and prevention of maritime pollution. Additionally, it seeks to ensure the cost-effectiveness of shipping services – availability of shipping space, frequency of sailings, level of freight rates, competitiveness and survival of national/regional operators, efficiency of seaports, inland transportation networks, availability of coastal shipping services, efficiency of multi-modal transport systems and trade facilitation, protection of shippers’ interests, and the special case of landlocked countries.

Article 11 of the MOWCA Rules of Procedure empowers the Chairman to convene and chair the Sessions of the General Assembly and ensure the decisions of the Assembly are implemented by the Secretary General.

The Transport Minister is expected to hit the ground running as the Kinshasa conference failed to elect a Secretary General. The new MOWCA Chairman is, therefore, expected to convene an extra-ordinary meeting within the next six months to elect a Secretary General who will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the organisation.

Ghana’s delegation to the Kinshasa conference was led by the Ag. Chief Director at the Ministry of Transport, Mrs. Mabel Sagoe, who received the staff of office on behalf of the minister.

The organisation, despite the lofty goals set at its founding some 45 years ago, has struggled to realise its potential in a region with immense shipping opportunities and large maritime industry, and it is expected that under leadership of Mr. Asiamah, MOWCA will be reorganised and restructured to achieve the objectives for which it was established.