Consultants sign MoU to build capacity
The Ghana Association of Consultants (GAC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Institute of Consulting (GIC), a capacity-building institution, to build the capacity of members of GAC.
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Under the MoU, the two bodies will work together to implement joint policies and programmes to facilitate the participation of GAC members in consultancy training and provide mutual professional and developmental benefits to stakeholders and society at large.
At the signing ceremony in Accra, the President of the Ghana Association of Consultants, Mr Albert A. Ogyiri, who signed for the association, said the MoU was important because building the capacity of members would enhance their work and consequently benefit the country as a whole.
The Ghana Association of Consultants (GAC), the umbrella organisation for the local consulting industry, was established in 1989 as a product of a programme initiated by some Ghanaian consultants. It was then supported and financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Dutch government.
“We believe that indigenous consultants have a crucial role to play in building and developing the country, hence the need for more capacity building,” Mr Ogyiri, who is also a Fellow of the Ghana Institute of Engineers (FGhIE), said.
“It is an undeniable fact that the sustainable development of any country can only be achieved by utilising indigenous capacity. We the indigenous professional consultants therefore need to pool our resources to effectively anchor the development of our dear country,” he said.
The Director of GIC, Mr Richard Torkornoo, who signed for the GIC, said the agreement was a testament to GIC’s resolve to contribute to the development of the country as a whole.
He said the GIC was interested in assisting GAC members in ways that would help them to deliver professional services more competently and provide workable solutions to their clients in and outside Ghana.
“Since our establishment, our aim has been to be a globally recognised centre of excellence for the training of professionals who wish to learn or refresh their consulting skills, so that they may be equipped to apply their expertise as consultants successfully in any domain, locally and internationally,” he said.
The GIC was established in 2009 to provide high-quality training services in professional practices in support of labour market development and better business performance in Ghana and West Africa.
The institute has since trained many professionals, aspiring consultants, public and private sector employees, and even newly graduated students in a variety of skills-based certificate programmes.