Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) and its Effects on Safe and Dignified Migration in West Africa
West Africa is one of Africa’s most mobile regions where intra-regional migration represents a large part of its cross-border movements and has been widely recognized as key to the region’s economic growth and stability. Also, the recent migration dynamics between ECOWAS Member States and Europe have further highlighted the importance of improved migration management.
The rapid spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in ECOWAS Member States taking series of actions to save their citizens and others from being infected. The virus which has shown that it is no respecter of persons and has affected important personalities, including migrants. Countries have issued travel warnings, travel restrictions, health screening and quarantines to help protect travellers from this deadly virus.
Given the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic and its implication on human mobility, individual ECOWAS MS as well as the ECOWAS Regional body is considering taking and have taken some measures to fight the pandemic.
It has therefore become important to strengthen the capacity of Member States and the region for resilience, prevention, detection, surveillance and response to epidemics and emergencies.
In the medium to long term, specific technical studies will be commissioned to come up with empirical evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on Regional Transport and Trade as well as Free Movement of Persons which will inform the ECOWAS Commission decision making in reorganizing sectors to support the desired economic growth and regional integration Agenda of ECOWAS.
Listen and learn about the challenges and plans the region's initiatives are gearing towards declaring the ECOWAS region environment a safe place for the Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services and also to ensure migrants move in a dignified manner.
He is a trainer/resource person at the Ghana Immigration Academy and Training Schools where he has assisted in drafting training modules for the schools. He is a former Commandant of the Ghana Immigration Academy and Training Schools (ISATS) and once served as the Commanding officer of the Ghana Immigration Service Training School where he commanded, instructed, administered, evaluated, counselled, and monitored all student training phases and operational activities in the Training School.
He had earlier served with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) attached to the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) as an Immigration Expert/Advisor under the Reform and Restructuring Unit of the United Nations Police (UNPOL) deployed at the BIN Headquarters where he performed advising, training, mentoring and monitoring activities at the BIN in Liberia. He was very instrumental in the conceptualization and implementation of the training of 150 Liberian Immigration officers in Ghana and also coordinated several capacity building programs and projects with donor partners for the Ghana Immigration Service and the Liberia Immigration Service as well as drafting the first ever Strategic Plan for the Liberia Immigration.
He has 30years working experience with the Ghana Immigration Service. He was part of the Immigration team that handled the Liberia refugees (both at the Tema habour and the Budumburam Refugee Camp) on arrival in Ghana during the outbreak of war in Liberia in 1989. He also served as a member of a passport committee that was responsible for the investigation into the fraudulent acquisition of passports and visas in Ghana
He was one time the head of the Immigration Document Fraud Unit at the Kotoka International Airport in Ghana where we undertook secondary examination of documents, conducted fraud analysis and prepared fraud reports on documents and persons for other sister security agencies and embassies/diplomatic missions in Ghana, profiled documents/persons at the last departure points for airlines, process deportees/inadmissibles and monitor the entire traveling public within the airport facility which led to the reduction of the use of fraudulent documents through the airport. During this role, he collaborated and successfully coordinated with the various Immigration Airline Liaison Officers of various international countries to ensure the reduction in the use of fraudulent documents through the Kotoka International Airport.
He has an Executive Masters in Business Administration (Project Management Option) from the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) and is also a graduate of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Tourism. He also holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Public Administration from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and a graduate of the Ghana Immigration Service Academy. He also holds a United Nations Certificate in Basic Drug Law Enforcement Training, Spanish National Police Diploma in detection of false documents, Netherlands National Bureau of Documents Certificate in Document Awareness Training, Certificate in Communication and Report Writing Skills, United Nations Certificate in Supervision (Teamwork and Development), and United Nations Certificate in Conflict Resolution in the Workplace Workshop.
Jan 2017 – Present
Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria
Director Human Resources – ECOWAS Commission
Aug 2011 – Dec 20165 years 5 months
Abuja, Federal Reublic of Nigeria
Principal Programme Officer, Performance Development
ECOWAS Commission
Jul 2008 – Jul 2010 - 2 years 1 month
Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria
Senior Manager/People Manager
Ernst & Young West Africa
Jan 2005 – Jun 2008 - 3 years 6 months
Consultant - Asst Manager
Ernst & Young
Jan 1999 – Oct 2000 - 1 year 10 months
Accra, Ghana
