The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice has brokered a historic deal to allow Ghanaian judges, lawyers and law graduates to study in the prestigious Georgetown University Law Centre in Washington DC.

The deal, an initiative of Godfred Yeboah Dame, is the culmination of months of intensive negotiations between the Office of the Attorney General and the Scholarships Secretariat on the one hand and the Georgetown University Law Centre on the other.

The agreement, the first of its kind, is to implement a joint graduate scholarship programme over the next five years and results from an intention to strengthen the ties between Georgetown University and the legal fraternity in Ghana.

It is also to enhance the linkages between Ghanaians and the people of the United States of America and improve cooperation between the two countries in legal education.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mr Yeboah Dame expressed his delight at the opportunities the programme offers.

"This programme is unique because it is not just simply a client/provider agreement but one where Georgetown University Law Centre, perhaps the best of the kind in the world, and my Office are fully invested in the further education of Ghanaian judges, lawyers and legal academics. This can only be good news," he said.

"My most important responsibility, as Attorney General, is to represent the interests of the people legally and also ensure that we have a functional and relevant legal system that works for the people. In this regard, I am prioritising legal education both within and without the country as a focus area for my Office.

"The government has already taken significant steps with the massive increase in student admission to the Ghana Law School last year and with the ongoing construction of the Law Village complex. This agreement is further proof of my commitment to the cause. And I promise you more of such initiatives", Dame concluded.

Also present at the signing ceremony was Prof Madhavi Sunder, Dean of International and Graduate Programs at Georgetown University.

He expressed satisfaction with the partnership and stated that she was hopeful and confident that the partnership would be expanded in the near future to create more opportunities and benefits for Ghana and the Georgetown Law Center.

Providing further details of the programme, Kingsley Agyemang, Registrar of the Scholarships Secretariat, said the agreement would cover several students admitted every year to read the Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) and the Master of Laws( LLM) programmes.

"Georgetown has agreed to fund a substantial part of the cost of tuition for students while the government of Ghana would fund the rest, in addition to costs associated with our duty of care to Ghanaian students under our patronage ".

"For this, we have the honourable Attorney General to thank. His initiative and industry have brought us to this point," added the Registrar.

Georgetown University, a private university in Washington DC, is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit higher education institution in the US, having been founded in 1789 by John Carroll, the US' first bishop and archbishop, in the national capital.

Famous alumni include two former US Presidents: Bill Clinton and Lyndon Johnson, and several other heads of state, including King Felipe VI of Spain and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Former US defence secretaries Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld; José Manuel Barroso, the former president of the European Commission, are all alumni of Georgetown