The Council of Ghana Nationals Associations in Italy (COGNAI) has unanimously voted in favour of including on the Council’s memberships religious and tribal groups within the community of Ghanaians in Italy.

At a national Assembly of the Council held in the Italian city Brescia, delegates from 11 of the 17-member Associations present accepted a proposal by the Executive Board on expanding representation on the Council with membership from various Churches, Moslem and Tribal groups – now having a wide base within the communities.

The member-Associations at the meeting were representatives from cities of Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, Lecco, Bergamo, Novara, Udine, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Bologna and Torino. Among the tribal groups also present were Sekondi/Takoradi Union, Gadangme Union, Volta Region Union, Brong Ahafo Citizens Union as well as leaders from different churches.

In an opening remark, the President of the Council, Omari Somuah, thanked the delegates for their presence saying Ghanaians in Italy take pride in their unity amongst communities of foreign nationals in Italy and that the inclusion of the new representatives will strengthen COGNAI as the umbrella of all Ghanaians Association in Italy.

Earlier at the meeting, the Secretary of Ghana Nationals Association (GNA) in Brescia, Aloysius Eduam, in a welcome note expressed his gratitude to members of the Council for choosing Brescia to host the National Assembly. He gave a brief history of the city Brescia and said its one location with a large population of immigrants. The new President of the GNA in Brescia, Benjamin Amu, who chaired the meeting, was also introduced to the delegates.

Giving details on incorporating the two groups on the Council membership, the General Secretary of COGNAI, Gilbert Abasimi, mentioned that the idea came from the National Assembly held at Lecco last year and after a lengthy deliberation by the Executives Board, invitation letters were sent to all the various groups to come and discuss the issue. “There is too much proliferation of Ghanaian representation without political weight and substance in the social-political consideration of both Italy and Ghana Governments. That lack of cohesive political force and appeal of Ghanaians Organisations in Italy is to be blamed on the many splinter groups that are not effectively co-ordinated and represented”, he told the delegates, noting the embracement will enrich COGNAI with more human resource capacities and provide an efficient organisation and operation. Member-Associations supported the reasons for the enlargement and overwhelmingly voted in favour.

Explaining further the integration, the General Secretary said the various religious and tribal groups will have 5 representatives, coming from the national level, at COGNAI’s meetings adding the bringing on board of the new groups will call for certain parts of COGNAI’s Constitution to be amended. Also at the meeting, an idea of registering COGNAI as a National Organisation of ONLUS (a type of NGO) under Italy’s Republic decree n.361/2000(DPR361/2000) was extensively discussed. According to the General Secretary there are several ways of classifying Organisations to benefit from certain scope of operations. Presently, he said, COGNAI is a non-recognised Voluntary Organisation registered under the Civil Code of Italy and for the Council to benefit from some State contributions and tax exemptions or participate in some bids it needs to register with certain State Institutions. “Some of these registrations may need a modification of COGNAI’s Constitution whilst others may need some economic or financial evaluation,” he explained, adding, “one of the reasons for registering under the aforementioned Law is to be able to participate in what is described in Italy as ‘5 per mille fund’ (5 for a thousand fund) where Ghanaians in Italy or any other can direct that part of their tax deduction be paid into a COGNAI Fund.”

Among other deliberations was an issue of Ghanaians participation in Development Programmes in Italy and participation on Co-development programmes and projects initiated by the European Union.

Council members were finally informed the celebration of Ghana’s 54th Independence Anniversary in Italy will be hosted by the GNA in Novara in collaboration with COGNAI on March 12.

Activities of the day will include a display of the cultural image of Ghana with traditional drumming and dancing, a Youth Quiz on African/Ghanaian culture, History, Geography and Civic Affairs (for youths between 14-19 years). There will also be speeches on selected topics. The first speech on ‘Factors that fueled the Independence struggle of Ghana’ to be delivered by Omari Somuah (COGNAI’s President), the second by Simon Atieku (from the Ghana Embassy, Rome) on ‘Economic Development in Ghana’ and the third speech on ‘Immigrant workers and economic crisis in Italy’, by Jonas Opoku-Forson (Patron – GNA, Novara). The Ghana Ambassador to Italy, Her Excellency Anita Evelyn Stokes-Hayford will lead a delegation from the Embassy to the event.

- Reggie Tagoe in Brescia, Italy.