“Soon You’ll Not Be Employed If You Can’t Speak French” – President Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo has said French will soon be a requirement for job seekers in the country, thus one’s ability to communicate in the language will better his or her chances of landing a job.

According to the president, he anticipates that the French will soon become a national requirement for jobs.

He made this known during an exclusive interview with Anne Sophie Avé, the French Ambassador to Ghana, for the final episode of Season 1 of her Touch of France TV talk show.

President Akufo-Addo stated that the French language is important in AfCFTA commerce.

Following its implementation on January 1, 2021, the AfCFTA pact aims to establish the world’s largest free-trade zone, connecting 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $3.4 trillion. It is also expected to lower trade tariffs and allow Africa to become more integrated into global supply chains.

With Ghana being “an English-speaking island in a French sea,” as he put it during the meeting, the French Ambassador believes that job seekers should be prepared to meet the demand that will accompany the country’s growing export potential.

“I think that of course as Ghana’s export potential, capacity to export its products – especially value-added products – increases and intensifies, [yes] Ghanaian companies will be looking to populate the sales departments, the international sales departments, the exports departments, with people who have the facility in the language”, he said.

“I can see that coming very easily. In any event, the greater the links, the stronger the integration and you are talking about links of language, of culture, of blood. All these are important links that enable people to live in the same space”, he explained.

Doing business in France, as well as applying what he learned in Ghana and Africa. He is Ghana’s first head of state to be interviewed by an ambassador.

Similarly, Anne Sophie Avé became the first Ambassador to host a TV show at Jubilee House.