Twenty Fire officers drawn from across the 10 Regions of Ghana are scheduled to undergo an eight-day capacity building training programme in Malta from February 18, 2018.
The training, which is the first of its kind for the Ghana National Fire Service since 1993, is expected to enhance the capacities of the personnel in modernization of the service as part of the transformational agenda being pursued by the service.
At a farewell ceremony for the personnel in Accra on Friday, February 17, 2018, the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery implored the personnel to make the most out of the training.
According to him, only five percent of fires fought are defensive with the remaining ninety-five percent being offensive.
“This training is meant to make you more offensive and that is just five percent of you work that is defensive. So it show how much room we have for improvement” he stressed.
To this end, Mr. Dery, appealed to the personnel to learn from their colleagues so that when they return, they would be able to make the service move into that level of fighting aggressive or storm fire effectively and efficiently.
The Minister also urged them to be good ambassadors of Ghana. According to him, Maltese are noted for travelling a lot and thus urged the personnel to exhibit professionalism whilst still marketing Ghana as the destination of choice to the Maltese.
“When you go out there, put up your best and market the image of Ghana because Malta has one of the highest tourists in the world, Maltese travel a lot so market Ghana to them well through your comportment.” He said,
Mr, Dery, on behalf of President Akufo-Addo congratulated them on their nomination and charged them to take the training serious so they can come back and impact positively on the service.
He used the occasion to reiterate the government’s commitment to resourcing the services to enable it deliver on its mandate of safeguarding life and properties which is in consonance with His Excellency Akufo-Addo’s aspiration of making Ghanaians feel safe and also seeing the security services transformed.
Mr. Dery commended the Maltese Government for fully funding the training and called for more of such capacity building programmes.
The Honorary Consul of Malta, Jean Claude Galea Mallia on his part, indicated that the commitment of the Maltese government goes beyond just trade but in other aspects of government of which the training is inclusive.
“This stands to show its commitment towards Ghana not only in term of trade but in other aspects of government relations. We believe that knowledge ought to be shared, especially that knowledge serves a purpose of saving lives” He said.
He urged the officers to make the most out of the training course and learn all that there is to be learnt so they can share with their colleagues when they return.
In his opening remarks, the Acting Chief Officer, DCOF Edwin Ekow Blankson expressed gratitude to the Interior Ministry and the Malta Consulate for putting together the course for the officers.
He called for such frequent training courses for personnel of the Ghana Fire Service as firefighting involved 95% offensive and 5% defensive firefight attack.
