The Korle Klottey Municipality in Accra, Ghana, has partnered with Russia's University of Science and Technology MISIS to enhance its communication skills and improve the quality of municipal services, Hans Bernard Nii Ofori-Quaye, head of public relations at the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly, told Sputnik Africa.
NUST MISIS experts will train municipal staff in effective communication strategies, with a particular focus on building stronger relationships with the public.
"The world is a global village, and so we are doing everything we can to fit into it," Hans Bernard Nii Ofori-Quaye noted.
He underlined that when the Korle Klottey Municipality, located in the heart of Ghana's capital, initiates any development project, it affects the entire country.
"This training is specifically designed for the heads of our departments in the municipality and the communications department. […] When we impart knowledge to the department heads, it gets passed on to the employees working under their supervision," he explained.
The purpose of the training is to improve the skills of the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly staff in interacting with the public. The University of Science and Technology MISIS was chosen as a partner for the Korle Klottey Municipality because it is one of the leading universities in Russia, located in the business center of Moscow, just two kilometers from the Kremlin.
Hans Bernard himself studied at NUST MISIS and can personally attest to the high quality of education at this university.
"I am a testament to the fact that training at NUST MISIS can be beneficial," he told Sputnik Africa.
He believes that the partnership with MISIS University will help municipal staff gain detailed knowledge of how to communicate, build relationships, and implement communication programs or strategies to win the hearts of the population and ensure service delivery. This cooperation is part of a broader effort by the municipal administration to learn from the successful Russian model of urban development. The municipality has also initiated programs in waste and resource management, consulting with Russian universities.
The head of public relations for the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly mentioned that Moscow has recently become one of the most developed cities in the world, and by learning from Moscow's experience, the Ghanaian municipality can gain valuable insights. The Mayor of Accra is pleased that they are strengthening partnerships with various institutions in Moscow to adopt their practices and explore collaboration opportunities for Accra's development, as Bernard highlighted.
"We firmly believe that this program will enhance our municipality's information-sharing capabilities. We are confident that this program will help achieve consensus, build relationships between citizens and the administration, and make the feedback process between the city and the administration dynamic and timely," he said.
According to the head of the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly, it "can learn from Moscow's development experience," as the city is "green" and has "well-organized traffic management."
"If you look at the mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, you can see that he has truly accelerated the city's development to its current level. I personally witnessed this transformation. [...] There is no waste left to be disposed of, making Moscow one of the neatest and cleanest cities in the world," Bernard emphasized.
The head of public relations of the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly mentioned that he is "a living testament to what a Russian university could give." He pointed out that a distinctive feature of Russia was its "practice-based education system." According to him, students are trained and given knowledge that "enables them to function practically within the system, which is suitable for everyone; the education provided in Russia shapes and guides individuals."
"Our first president, Kwame Nkrumah, established strong relations and a solid connection with the Soviet Union. President Nkrumah's vision was that we should learn from the East. We should practice the culture of the East to become self-sufficient. So that we could take control of our own situation, manage our affairs, and handle them at our discretion," the Ghanaian official said.
The Ghanaian municipality has been officially invited to participate in the BRICS Municipal Forum, which will be held in Moscow during the last week of August, Bernard said.
"This is the largest and most important forum where Moscow will showcase the transformations that have taken place in the city," he noted.