Ghana’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Nations (UN), Ken Kanda has retired after 39 years of dedicated career in Ghana’ Foreign Service.
At an emotional farewell get-together organised by staffs of the Ghana Mission and the Ghanaian Community in New York, Mr Kanda extended an invitation to Ghanaian professionals across the globe to return home and help build the country.
[contextly_sidebar id=”VscXY6K0aVswkVjYNKzdjxObZlKTgYKE”]He noted: “Ghanaian professionals are needed back home to support the transformational agenda of government,” stressing “as a developing nation we need all human resources available to improve the standards and lives of citizenry and to accelerate our development”.
Mr Kanda commended the staffs for their commitment and dedication to duty and challenged them to continue to offer dedicated service to project Ghana’s image at the United Nations.
Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection who was the special guest at the get-together, thanked Mr Kanda for dedicated service to mother Ghana.
The Gender Minister who is leading Ghana’s Delegation to the 59 session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women at New York noted that Mr Kanda’s transit diplomatic service to the UN has ended, “but he is returning home to continue his service to Ghana”.
She described Mr Kanda as a mentor, and role model who has provided inspiration to the younger foreign service Ghanaian diplomats who are serving all over the World in the name of Ghana.
Nana Oye Lithur called on the staff to always protect the image of Ghana and promote the country at the international level to attract foreign investment to the country in order to increase the country’s productivity and promote development.
Mr Kanda’s abridged profile indicates that he hails from Kpandu in the Volta Region, obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975 from the University of Ghana where he studied Political Science and Modern History.
He also undertook a graduate diploma in international studies three years later. He was also a Hubert Humphrey Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, New Jersey, United States.
Mr Kanda entered the Ghanaian Foreign Service in 1976 and served in various capacities in places including Copenhagen and Bonn. He served as the Protocol Officer to then Vice President John Evans Atta Mills between 1997 and 1998.
He also held various positions within the Ghana Foreign Service both within and outside Ghana till 2009 when he became Director of State Protocol.
Mr Kanda continued in this post till his current appointment to the United Nations. He was appointed in 2011 by late President Mills
From 2004 to 2008, Mr. Kanda served as Minister Plenipotentiary at Ghana’s Embassy in Berlin, Germany, before which, he was Chief of Protocol at the Foreign Ministry from 2003 to 2004.
Between 2002 and 2003, he served as the Director of the Economic Trade and Investment Bureau of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, having served previously as Minister Counselor at Ghana’s High Commission in Harare, Zimbabwe from 1998 to 2002.
In 2012, the Global Awareness Society International awarded him a global award for his contribution to Global Understanding and world Peace.
The prestigious award from the Global Awareness Society International (GASI), a worldwide think tank that seeks to promote awareness of the diversity of cultures with in the world was in recognition of Ambassador Kanda’s promotion of Ghana at the United Nations and his excellent diplomatic career.
Source: GNA