The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has signed a grant agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to provide scholarship to young government officials to obtain doctorate degree and master’s degree in universities in Japan.

According to a statement from JICA to the Ghana News Agency, “The Human Resource Development Scholarship for the Year 2020” provides grant for 13 officials, who would attend the programme to obtain degrees to take active roles in resolving development challenges in Ghana after completion.

The support also intends to expand and enhance the bilateral relations between Ghana and Japan, and the government’s agenda of achieving a “Ghana beyond Aid” through human resource development, it added.

The scholarship programme, according to the statement, started in 2012 benefitting 65 Ghanaians.

The grant amount is 269 million Japanese Yen equivalent to $2.51 million dollars, expected to support 12 Masters Degree officers and one Doctorate Degree officer.

The programmes of study would be Economics, Public Finance Management, Public Administration, Health, Agriculture and Energy at the Cooperate University, Kobe University, Nagoya University, Ritsumeikan University, Nagasaki University, Kyushu University and Hiroshima University.

Japan International Cooperation Agency is the official development assistance agency of the Government of Japan and since 1977, JICA Ghana has been implementing many projects and assisting the Government of Ghana in its efforts to achieve the country’s developmental goals and agenda.

JICA Ghana supports Ghana through loans, grant aids and technical cooperation in many thematic areas including governance, private sector development, health, education, agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, volunteerism and others.

Example of JICA supported projects are Tema motorway roundabout project, Noguchi Research Institute in the University of Ghana, KAIZEN, and the National Board for Small Scale Industries