The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panyin, has said it is impossible for Ghana to build a resilient economy when 70% of the people have no opportunities to earn a decent living.
According to the overlord of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, the government must spread opportunities across the country and ensure that people who live in places endowed with natural resources benefit them.
"It takes leadership like what we have now to bring about changes. We shouldn't be petrified to change; our people and our country deserve better. We cannot build a strong economy that excludes 70% of our people. We will go nowhere with that. So, as we build this thing here and we inaugurate it here in Accra, I agree. But in the future, we are going to just ask that things should come to rural Ghana where the people who God blessed them to be where they are should enjoy their natural resources," the Okyenhene said at the opening of the Ghana Gold Refinery in Accra on Thursday, August 8, 2024.
Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panyin further emphasised that nobody can grow without opportunity.
"I have always said that I don't understand what the Forestry Commission is doing in Accra, why the Ministry of Agriculture is in Accra, what the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is doing in Accra. We can open up; we can open up with a leadership like this. I know they know what I am talking about. We need to spread the opportunities because without opportunity no one grows.
"I would like to see a day when a refinery will be built around Tarkwa and Obuasi so that the people who live there can have opportunities to earn a decent living for themselves and their people. There are seventy percent of our people who live in rural Ghana who are wallowing in poverty not because they want to be poor but because opportunity has not reached them. And how best can you bring opportunities to the people of Tarkwa and Akwatia? It is when a refinery like this is built right there locally," he stated.
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