JAPAN EMBASSY IN GHANA HOLDS PRESS TOUR ON SOME JAPANESE SPONSORED SITES IN ACCRA AND TEMA

JAPAN EMBASSY IN GHANA HOLDS PRESS TOUR ON SOME JAPANESE SPONSORED SITES IN ACCRA AND TEMA

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  • August 1, 2024
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Story By : Gyamfi Elizabeth Alhassan

The Embassy of Japan has embarked on a visiting tour with the media to inspect some Japanese sponsored project sites in Accra and Tema to know the level of development.

The tour started with a brief meeting at JICA office in Accra. Mr Ryotaro who is a senior representative from JICA gave a speech that, JICA as an Official Development Assistance (ODA), the implementing Agency of Japanese Government has been working with the Government of Ghana to support its development efforts for over 60 years. Since 1963, when the first technical cooperation started in Ghana, JICA has supported in areas such as Agriculture, lnfrastructure, Health, Education, Governance and private sector Development.


He continued that, “through our cooperation, more than 4,700 officials have received training in Japan or in third countries and about hundred (100) fellows have acquired Master’s Degrees scholarship in Japanese Top universities. JICA has also supported construction and rehabilitation of 766km of roads and 28 bridges and also introduced and handed out 1.77 million Maternal and Child Health Record Books, which provides continuum care for mother and child. In addition, it has provided trainings to more than 20,000 farmers and more than doubling the average yield of rice in our project area.
He also Delved into the project for improvement of the Tema Motorway Roundabout Phase 2.

However, in an interview with the media, Mr Yaw Tenkorang Osei who is the Assistant Resident Supervisor stated that, the Japanese grant aid project and magnificent edifice, focuse on the construction works within the Harbour to Akosombo Road direction only. It has 142m, I-girder flyover over a grade separated signalized intersection.

The sub-structure for the flyover has four number 5.0m diameter caisson pile foundations with three of them at a depth of 14.5m and the remainder at a depth of 15.0m.

The abutments also have eight number 2.5m diameter caisson piles foundations with a maximum depth of 10m. Upon completion, this project will have an approximate road surfacing length of 1.8km, 435m reinforced earth walls, 140m retaining walls and about 3km drainage works among others.

Currently, the project has achieved 79.35% progress which is on schedule. The Consultant and the Contractor are poised to delivering the project by December 2024 as per contract completion date. As part of the works, the flyover shall be opened to traffic in November 2024 and shall be partially commissioned by the Client, i.e. Ministry of Roads and Highways and Ghana Highway Authority.
As it stands now, all imports required for the project have been received at the port and delivered to the site for the works.


The project is mainly dominated by the Ghanaian staff as part of the project’s initiative to provide knowledge and intellectual transfer to Ghanaian.
Essentially, this project which serves as the intersection of National Road N1 which forms part of the Trans-Atlantic Highway and National Road N2 which serves northern Ghana and the neighboring landlocked countries, would contribute immensely to the alleviation of traffic and the general improvement of the economy of the country and the sub region.

Head of African Business, Miss Mary on her part said, SORA Technology uses drones and AI for data-driven surveillance in the fields of health, agriculture, and climate.
whilst the flagship project supports malaria elimination using the two main components: drones and AI.

She therefore added, “malaria solution aims to provide a tech-driven larval source management system that is cost-effective and efficient compared to traditional methods. This is achieved by ensuring risk classification of water bodies with larval (larval habitat) and targeted spraying of high-risk larval habitat only.
This can be achieved by using our drone to Map waterbodies, and with our sensors, and AI to analyze and risk classification.
This phase one project, which is an operational research study to assess the cost-effectiveness of our solution against traditional methods, is funded by JICA and is set to begin in late August this year”.


“We aim to collaborate with the National Malaria Elimination Program and various research institutions to achieve our goals”. She ended.

The tour ended at TranSonica Company Limited where we engaged with the founder, Mr Daniel Elliot Kwantwi who gave much details about TranSoniCa Company Limited that, its has developed a smart contactless payment system for boarding buses and paying at the shops or restaurants. This allows every Ghanaian irrespective of their class to pay for anything at any time without joining long queues, being afraid of getting robbed or receiving counterfeits. It enhances the purchasing experience of customers who do not have to carry heavy coin changes wherever they go.


He stated that, “the story of TranSoniCa began about six(6) years a ago when I first stepped my foot on the soil of Japan. I came as an exchange student to study at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. And that was when I had my first encounter with SUICA, a contactless card used in Japan, but we are not sure of its marketability in Ghana. I went back home a year after a developed team and we started investigating the problem and its market. Our discovery was that, the contactless payment system that our company is introducing has a huge market potential in Ghana and even beyond”.

He added that, “TranSonica has reached 13,000 cardholders and can also be used to board a bus, pay at the restaurants, shops, food joint and market

He concluded that, “We are looking for investors to scale the business. The investment will be used to procure more hardware. We want to therefore invite all angel investors who want to make an impact in the fintech space to join us make transactions the best part of every Ghanaian and African life.
JICA and my former universities in Japan (University of Tokyo and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology). We are now looking forward to working with the University of Ghana.

Ghana is a country that has many potentials, with young and growing population and abundant natural resources. JICA is committed to working together with the Government of Ghana and development partners to bring our knowledge and resources together.

We are forever grateful to the Japanese Government for its continued support through the Japan International Cooperation Agency and we want to continue to work with them”.

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