The Honorable Hon. Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, Honorable Ministers and Members of Parliament, Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Niimei, Naamei, Nananom, distinguished guests, colleagues, friends of the United States and Ghana, akwaaba, oobake, welcome.
Good evening and thank you for joining us to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Independence of the United States of America. This is a particularly special moment for me, as a proud native of the city of Philadelphia, where our Independence took root. I am just old enough to remember the last massive celebration of our independence, the Bicentennial in 1976. And in fact I will be doing the toast this evening using a memento from that year that my parents kept and passed on to me in recent years.
Thank you to our emcees, for keeping us engaged and entertained this evening.
We have a series of special guests, as you’ve all seen. A U.S. Independence Day celebration is always made more memorable and more special when we’re able to have one of our great U.S. military music ensembles join us, and especially so as we celebrate Freedom 250. We requested their presence late last year and we appreciate them working very hard to fit this stop in Accra into their schedule. And so thank you to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa Band, “Diplomats Jazz Combo,” for their performance this evening. Your service to our nation through music is deeply appreciated.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a small group of determined people from a series of colonies concentrated on the East Coast of North America, made one of the boldest gestures in all of human history. They declared their right to self-governance. They asserted that all people are endowed with “certain unalienable rights” – the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They declared the Independence of the United States of America.
That declaration began the American story. Our story has always been about our people, as well as the people with whom we share our journey.
Tonight, as we mark 250 years of American independence, we also celebrate the shared story of the United States and Ghana.
When Ghana raised its flag as an independent nation in 1957, the United States was there. Vice President Richard Nixon led the presidential delegation to Ghana’s Independence Day celebrations, and it was here, in Accra, that he met for the first time a 28-year-old civil rights activist named the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That occasion deepened the United States’ engagement with Africa in a very real and tangible way. Upon his return to Washington, Vice President Nixon reported to President Eisenhower that Africa was a strategically vital region, and that a dedicated policy apparatus was urgently needed. And thus, the very next year, 1958, within the U.S. Department of State, a dedicated Bureau of African Affairs was created for the first time. And also in 1958, President Eisenhower hosted President Nkrumah in the White House. And then of course there are the incredible contributions that Martin Luther King made to U.S. history in the remaining 11 years of his life, in leading our own civil rights movement.
A few years later, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps, and Ghana was the very first country to welcome volunteers in 1961. This year marks 65 years of the Peace Corps in Ghana – in fact 65 years of the Peace Corps anywhere – where more than five thousand volunteers have lived and served in Ghanaian communities.
His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama has remarked on how a Peace Corps Volunteer shaped his early education. That is a testament to how one teacher and one classroom can build great things.
Tonight, Peace Corps Volunteer LaBrittany Koger, who is currently serving in the health sector in the Northern Region, sang our national anthem, as she did last year.
Indeed, it has often been personal connections that have defined our strong bilateral relationship.
Earlier this year, NASA astronaut Christina Koch made history as the first woman to travel beyond low-earth orbit and fly around the Moon as part of Artemis II, exemplifying what’s possible when we harness ingenuity. As was covered here widely, Christina studied at the University of Ghana as an exchange student about 25 years ago, and has proudly displayed the Ghanaian flag while in space. We are working to bring Christina back to Ghana for a visit within the next year.
In 1956, the incomparable American jazz great Louis Armstrong first came to Ghana, inspiring the State Department to launch the Jazz Ambassadors program. His trumpet met Ghana’s rhythms. Jazz blended with highlife. To this day, when you listen to the fusion of Ghanaian and American sounds, you can hear that shared history. Some of you may have heard this fusion when Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was in town last October for a series of concerts.
But our partnership is not only historical and cultural. It is also economic, tangible, and woven into our daily lives.
If you drove here tonight, you may have taken the George W. Bush highway, funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation. If you arrived by air, you may have flown United Airlines from Washington, or Delta Airlines from JFK – we recently celebrated Delta’s 20 years of direct flights to Accra. If you shopped online, you may have done so via an American data center or app, even if you didn’t realize it. American products line Ghanaian grocery shelves with the support of importers like the Imperial Group. American meat reaches Ghanaian tables with the support and promotion of the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
You see our partnership in the American brands that are a part of everyday life, many of which are being served tonight: the KFC and Coca Cola after work; the Burger King with a treat from Pinkberry on the weekend; the Pizza Hut and Budweiser you share with friends to watch a match. And then of course the Marriott and Sheraton hotels where you stay while you’re on the road. These businesses represent real investment, and provide real jobs and real skills. American companies in Ghana employ thousands of Ghanaians. They train staff, pay salaries, pay taxes, and help develop careers.
Take Newmont, the single largest taxpayer in Ghana; I was present at the inauguration of their new Ahafo mine last October. Every ounce of gold the mine extracts supports Ghanaian schools, hospitals, roads, and basic services. 99% of its workforce is Ghanaian, including its Country Manager. Thank you, Newmont, for your investment in Ghana, and for your support for tonight’s celebration. And thank you to all of our amazing sponsors – it truly is an incredible array of companies.
More than a hundred American companies are active in Ghana across all sectors – from energy to technology to agriculture. Many of them are members of the American Chamber of Commerce Ghana. When they succeed, they demonstrate confidence that Ghana is a place to invest, hire, grow, and stay for the long term.
When we speak with Ghana’s leaders, businesses, and citizens, we hear the same message: you want American investment, which helps provide the opportunity and skills to be able to compete.
Last year, we reached about $4 billion in U.S.-Ghana bilateral trade in goods and services. But we know that number can grow.
Ghana and the United States are natural partners. We are natural partners because we share values – a belief in freedom, in education, in entrepreneurship, in justice, and in the dignity of every individual. It was wonderful to partner last December, when we were able to bring in a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft, at President Mahama’s request, to transport the 48th Engineering Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces and ample supplies and equipment to Jamaica to help that country’s recovery from the devastating Hurricane Melissa.
The United States deeply values Ghana’s partnership in confronting shared threats from cybercrime, terrorism, and narcotics trafficking. Through close cooperation, we continue to hold criminal actors accountable through evidence exchange, investigative support, and the extradition of fugitives. Just this week, U.S. law enforcement officials handed over Sedina Tamakloe Attionu to their Ghanaian counterparts, fulfilling the extradition request that was presented to our government in her case. For its part, in the past year the government of Ghana has extradited a number of individuals wanted in the U.S., most commonly for involvement in cyber-related fraud that has stolen tens of millions of dollars from American victims. We are proud to work together with Ghana to ensure that those alleged to have committed, or been convicted of, criminal acts face justice.
But our partnership extends far beyond governments – it is rooted in the connections between our people. Students, families, businesspeople, artists, and diaspora communities connect each of us every single day.
Americans are the largest group of visitors to Ghana. And Ghana is the 14th largest sender of university students to the United States, and second in Africa, without adjusting for population size.
In a world of competing ideas and interests, Ghanaians and Americans are closely connected to each other and driving our partnership forward – toward greater self-sufficiency for the benefit of economic progress and sustainably.
That is what partnership looks like in our current era: not dependence, but resilience. Not a one-way flow of assistance, but a two-way exchange of investment, innovation, and expertise.
Over 20 years, the United States has invested $2.5 billion in Ghana’s health sector alone. That is a striking number, but the numbers that matter most are the lives saved. Through this assistance, 24,000 people living with HIV have been kept on lifesaving treatment; 1.5 million children have been protected from malaria each year; and 7.5 million Ghanaians were vaccinated during COVID-19. Lives saved, of course, also means families have been protected, and communities have been strengthened.
And while it is true that our foreign assistance process and picture has changed and continues to evolve, let’s be clear: the United States remains the largest financial contributor to health emergencies across the continent – committing more than $200 million directly to the current Ebola response in the DRC and Uganda, part of a broader $1.8 billion contribution to humanitarian assistance across the region.
The U.S.-Ghana partnership in the health sector has also thrived in the commercial space, such as through the ingenuity of Zipline’s drone delivery network, which has already completed 800,000 medical deliveries in Ghana since it started operating in 2019, saving an estimated 10,000 lives, including 1,600 just through the emergency transport of snake anti-venom.
As we greet this next phase of our partnership, we see enormous potential for U.S.-Ghana collaboration and commerce in emerging sectors – from digital technology to artificial intelligence, from advanced agriculture to cutting-edge energy techniques that can move Ghana up the value chain – a goal we support and which President Mahama has emphasized. Ghana’s young innovators are positioned well to seize these types of opportunities, and the United States is strategically seeding investment in that sector, for instance through U.S. support for the deployment of cutting-edge wireless technology at hundreds of base stations across Ghana, expanding rural connectivity and bridging the digital divide across West Africa.
There is one other area where our two countries will be connected in the coming weeks: I’m talking, of course, about the World Cup. The United States is proud to co-host the FIFA World Cup 2026 with Mexico and Canada, in what will be the largest World Cup ever!
Our embassy has been working hard ahead of the World Cup. We surged visa personnel from our embassies in other countries and made available tens of thousands of additional non-immigrant visa appointments as a result. We have also delivered a year of World Cup-inspired programming, and will be supporting several Watch Parties as part of Ghana Tourism Authority’s 16 x 16 initiative, implemented by Tribe who is also coordinating our event tonight. Thank you Tribe for all of your work on National Day and the World Cup activities.
This is why I say: we are natural partners.
As we celebrate 250 years of American independence, we know there have been many challenges along the way, and that our story is still incomplete. But we have shown resilience, creativity, the well-known American work ethic, and a commitment to help extend the promise of freedom around the world.
250 years into America’s independence and nearly 70 years into Ghana’s, we look to the future with optimism, confidence, and renewed purpose.
Tonight we celebrate not only America’s independence, but also the progress of the many ways in which, together, Americans and Ghanaians have worked side-by-side to advance our shared goals for democracy, security, and economic prosperity for the peoples and economies of both our nations.
As you leave this evening, please take note of a special commemorative coin in your gift bag – the Enduring Liberty Half Dollar, issued by the United States Mint to mark America’s 250th anniversary. On one side, Lady Liberty gazes toward the future; on the other, she passes her torch to a new generation, inscribed with the words: “Knowledge is the Only Guardian of True Liberty” – a fitting reminder of the values that bind our two nations together.
This is a limited release item and already sold out, destined to become a collector’s item and more importantly, a memory of our night here together.
Thank you for being part of this celebration. Thank you for being part of our story.
Happy 4th of July, Freedom 250, and long live the vibrant and enduring partnership between the United States of America and the Republic of Ghana.
Thank you.
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