Minister appeals for more British investment in Brong-Ahafo

Sunyani, Nov. 5, GNA - Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, has appealed to the British High Commission to link-up the region to especially British investors to create jobs for the youth. He said the region was blessed with abundant natural resources including precious minerals and tourist attraction sites that could be tapped to accelerate regional and national progress.

Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo made the appeal when Dr. Nick Westcott, British High Commissioner in Ghana, paid a courtesy call on him in Sunyani on Wednesday. He said unemployment among the youth was very high because the region, apart from some few timber firms, lacked industries that could offer them employment.

"As a result of the unemployment rate the region with a population of 2.2 million tops in illegal migration in Ghana", he said. Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo expressed concern about the rate at which Brong-Ahafo Region was gradually turning into a desert because of bushfires and other human activities.

"Brong-Ahafo Region used to be the leading cocoa producing region in Ghana but because of bushfires it now ranks third", he added. Dr. Westcott who is accredited to Cote D'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo congratulated the region on its 50th anniversary celebration. He said the United Kingdom had interest in Ghana because of its sound political dispensation and that a number of British corporate bodies and private investors had expressed their willingness to invest in Ghana. Dr. Westcott said the British High Commission was working with the Ghana Immigration Service and other non-governmental organisations to educate Ghanaians about the consequences of illegal migration. "We are also working hard to re-integrate illegal Ghanaian migrants who are in the UK into Ghana", he said.

Dr. Westcott said Ghana had a number of opportunities that could be explored to create jobs and urged the youth to take advantage of such opportunities and channel their exuberance in this direction "rather than passing through land and sea to enter abroad". The High Commissioner presented a British umbrella as a gift to Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo.

Dr. Westcott later held a dinner in Sunyani to interact with some journalists in the region.

He noted that Ghanaians in the UK were currently playing leading roles in the political, social and economic development of that country. "Now UK has a Ghanaian high court judge, leading lawyers, teachers, bankers, nurses and doctors", he said and added that "this is the reverse of colonization".

Dr. Westcott said UK had a Ghanaian population of 200,000 of which 100,000 of them had acquired British citizenship, adding there are however more than 200 Ghanaians imprisoned in the UK. Mr. Ian Mortey, Regional chairman of GJA expressed concern about low standards especially in the electronic media in the region and appealed to Dr. Westcott to help link the association to the international media for exchange programmes to raise standards. He said the association intended to establish a regional secretariat and called on the British High Commission to assist by providing the association with computers.