The Security Governance Initiative (SGI), a bilateral collaboration between the Ghanaian government and their United States allies, was established for US security experts to provide technical security assistance to Ghana’s security agencies to evolve Ghana’s security governance to the optimum level.

The focus areas identified to improve in the Joint Country Action Program of the SGI are divided into three which are Maritime Security, Border Security, and Cyber Security.

At the 4th SGI Steering Committee Meeting in Accra, representatives from both governments, met to brief on progress so far and draw plans for the next steps of implementation.

Charge De Affaires, Christopher Lamora, noted that the SGI partnership is not the typical train and equip program but rather USA’s assistance to Ghana to enhance its own security systems. He expressed pleasure towards Ghana’s commitment to the program.

“SGI is a different kind of program for the United States. It is not a matter of train and equip like a lot of our normal security sector assistance program. SGI’s goal is really to help countries help themselves. And Ghana very much has stepped up and shown the willingness to get to that point,” he said.

The Minister of National Security, Albert Kan Dapaah who chaired the meeting stated Government’s firm support of the SGI project, revealing that a final MOU for interagency cooperation is imminent.

“I want to assure you of the commitment of the government to the success of this initiative. Indeed, we are working hard to come up with the final memorandum of understanding for interagency cooperation among the lead agencies. The draft is completed and what now remains is to have the will and the commitment to push it through to the point where it will be signed,” he said.

Osei Bonsu Dickson, Chief Legal Advisor of National Security Secretariat, and SGI National Coordinator, outlined some of the important strides the SGI program is making in the security sector.

“If you go to our borders you don’t see uniformity along those lines. Ghana has an agenda to become a major power when it comes to maritime matters. Our job as SGI is to make that happen to fashion out things that can degrade those threats and improve our dominance,” he said.

Captain Kofi Ankamah, of the Ghana Maritime Authority, and leader of the SGI National Maritime Security Technical Working Team, said plans are working towards implementing a National Integrated Maritime Strategy for Ghana.

“JCAP identified the development under implementation of a National Integrated Maritime Strategy as the desired end state for that focus area. Which means that whatever we will be doing in that focus area at the end of it all we should be able to have in place an Integrated National Integrated Maritime Strategy,” he said.