The French Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Mr Jules-Armand Aniambossou,arrived in Tamale on the 19th of February, 2024 to begin a 2-day working visit to targeted institutions in parts of the region .
On arrival in Tamale , he paid courtesy call on the Overlord of Dagbon, His Majesty N-Dan Ya-Na Abukari.
Subsequently the Ambassador called on the mayor of Tamale , Hon Sule Salifu during which the two leaders had discussions on ways to deepen cooperation between the French embassy and the city of Tamale.
In his welcome remarks, Hon. Sule Salifu expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the French government for providing huge funding support for many of the development projects in the Tamale Metropolitan area including construction and refurbishment of a police station at Lamashegu community in Tamale , construction of market stores at the Tamale Aboabo market as well as storm drains at Gumani among other areas in Tamale.
Mayor Sule Salifu used the occasion to appeal for a number of interventions including support for the construction of yet another important storm drain at Lamakara, a suburb of Tamale , which in its current state has caused many life-threatening floods,displacing tens of thousands of residents in the affected community almost every rainy season. Hon Sule also highlighted the need to promote the study of French in our schools in the metropolis since Tamale remains the gateway to the neighboring francophone
countries namely Burkinafaso , Niger ,Mali and Ivory-coast. To this end,mayor Sule appealed to the ambassador to consider adopting atleast one basic school in Tamale to model this initiative aimed at promoting the study of French language . He expressed optimism that the initiative if implemented will ensure ensure that in the next ten or so years French speaking in the area will appreciate significantly enough to engender and boost commerce as well as trade relations between and among partner cities and beyond.
The Ambassador was grateful for the warmest reception and promised to work closely with the city authorities as well as traditional rulers to promote the development of the area.
Earlier, Mr Jules-Armand held a joint stakeholder meeting with the Northern Regional Minister, Hon Shani Alhassan Shaibu and the MMDCEs in the region which took place at the Northern Regional Coordinating Council , NRCC. They discussed the socio-economic development issues.