GCAA inaugurates newly appointed D-G

The Minister of Aviation, Joseph Kofi Adda, has challenged the board and management of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to work collaboratively to spur realisation of government’s agenda to make Ghana an aviation hub in the sub-region.

He noted that although many strides including scoring Effective Implementation (EI) rate of 89.89 per cent which was Africa’s highest score in Aviation Safety Oversight, have been achieved, the country has more to do in making the country the preferred choice for aviation services.

“I challenge the Board and the management to work even harder than the previous one to put in place all the measures and other regulatory policies to make sure that the President’s vision of making Ghana an aviation hub in the West Africa sub-region is achieved in the shortest possible time,” he added.

Mr Adda was speaking in Accra yesterday when he inaugurated the newly appointed Director General of the GCAA,  Mr Charles Kraikue.

Until his appointment to replace Simon Allotey, the retired former Director General, Mr Kraikue was a Deputy Director-General for Technical Services at the Authority.

The Minister urged the new Director General to follow the footsteps of his predecessor and advance Ghana’s relevance in the global aviation industry.

On his part, Mr Kraikue thanked the President and the Board for the appointment and pledged to work with the staff of GCAA to grow the sector.

He recognised the contributions of Mr Allotey, noting that the many lessons he learnt while working with him would be immensely helpful in his role as the Director-General.

In a related development, Juliet Aboagye-Wiafe, Director of Audit at the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) has been appointed as the new acting Deputy Director-General, Finance and Administration of the GCAA.

Her appointment follows the retirement of Mr Abdulai Alhassan who retired in July this year having attained the compulsory retirement age of 60.

A letter from the Office of the President dated August 27 and signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, named Ms Aboagye-Wiafe, as the one to fill the vacant position in acting capacity.

The appointment which takes effective immediately is in accordance with section 9 (4) of the Ghana Civil Aviation Act, 2004 (Act 678).

BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS