Ghana’s Vice President H.E. Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has assured the African Union Commission Chairperson H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma of his country’s readiness to take the lead in allowing regional flights to land, as well as ships dock on Ghana’s ports, once proper screening methods have been assured.

Accompanied by the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Dr. Carlos Lopes, the AUC Chairperson met with Ghana’s Vice President and Ministers on the first lap of their visit to the Ebola-affected countries.

“We thought it was important to meet with you, given that Ghana is the current Chair of ECOWAS, but also as a Member State in the sub-region with an important role to play. We will discuss some of the issues raised at the last Emergency meeting of the Executive Council,” Dr. Dlamini Zuma said before proceeding to engage in discussions with the Ghanaian authorities on issues including flights, and the need to step up the mobilization of human and financial resources.

The AU's emergency meeting took a decision on opening boarders, but there is a challenge about flights, which the airlines have raised, including the arrival and departure screening at the ports. Ghana’s VP accepted the call, to join with a few other countries, to lead the way.

H.E. Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur outlined Ghana’s public education efforts, health service training and infrastructure in readiness to deal with Ebola, should there be any emergence of cases within its borders. Appreciating the presence of the UNECA Executive Secretary, he drew attention to the ongoing and potentially devastating socio-economic consequences of the disease outbreak in the economies of these countries as well as that of the region and beyond.

“We need a comprehensive and coordinated regional response to the outbreak,” he echoed President John Mahama’s earlier call..

The AUC Chair also took the opportunity to brief the Vice President on an upcoming meeting of business people being convened in Addis Ababa to raise funds to support efforts on the ground. “It's not only a responsibility of Governments, but also business people, artists, civil society, and everyone,” Dr. Dlamini Zuma insisted.

The AUC and UNECA leaders will be in Freetown and Monrovia on Thursday 23 October 2014, and later on Friday 24 October be joined in Abidjan by African Development Bank President Dr Donald Kaberuka for the Guinea lap of the visit.

The third batch of volunteers of the ASEOWA (African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa) are expected to be deployed within a week.