The Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Her Excellency Kita Csaba, has said the government of Canada is progressively focusing her efforts on inclusive economic growth to support Ghana Beyond Aid.
According to H.E. Csaba, the Canadian government was doing so in part, because they recognise that on the Ghanaian side, President Akufo-Addo has made it very clear that he was working for a Ghana Beyond Aid and that is part of the reason that they are focusing so much on economic cooperation.
“Overall, Canada’s programme of development system in Ghana is maturing and moving in a new direction. It is moving in a new direction, in a sense, on one hand, we are focusing more and more our efforts on inclusive economic growth,”she said.
High Commissioner Csaba made these pronouncements when she paid a courtesy call on the Ashanti regional minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, in Kumasi, recently.
H.E. Csaba told the Ashanti regional minister that Canada sees Ghana as a friend and a partner on both bilateral and international stage.
According to her, a major programme of the Canadian government in Ghana was the flagship programme of agricultural modernisation, which works hand in hand with the Planting for Foods and Jobs Programme, in which Canada has very close collaboration with the government of Ghana.
According to her, she knows that there are many farmers (women) in the Ashanti region who benefitted from this service, particularly through extension services in reaching out to communities, making sure that they get advice on how they can improve the quality of their production and overall output.
She further touched on some projects that Canada is doing in Ghana and particularly the Ashanti region, stressing that Canada has had bilateral relations with Ghana since independence.
She added that, before Ghana gained independence, there were Canadians who were travelling to the Gold Coast as missionaries and were visiting the northern parts of Ghana, so we had relations in some form for more than a hundred years.
The Canadian envoy stated at the meeting that they had a history of providing support, especially in the Ashanti region, so on their way to meet the Ashanti regional minister, they passed by the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI), which they helped in establishing.
The High Commissioner maintains Canada is very pleased to be working in Ghana, especially the mining sector, where they have companies such as Kinross Chirano, Asanka Gold and Volta Star Resources.
Sharing her thoughts on mining, H.E. Kita Csaba noted: “Mining is an area that can be controversial; it has the potential to have a harmful impact, but the government takes its responsibility seriously because we have put in place legislation, rules and principles for Canadian mining companies wherever they are mining to follow all of those rules and local laws so that they bring in positive contributions to the community and that very much is in line with our efforts to promote responsible business.”
She acknowledged that galamsey was a major challenge across Ghana, including the Ashanti region, at the risk of cocoa being affected because of deforestation, “so I do want to assure you that we are encouraging mining companies to use environmentally friendly production methods to make sure that the environment is kept as clean as possible.”
Simon Osei Mensah, on his part, acknowledged the diverse ways through which the government of Canada is helping, especially in technical education.
“It is an important area that the country’s education is being directed to, because formal education always relies on government for the provision of jobs, which is non-existent.
“As a result, this educational system increasesthe labour force, which the government cannot satisfy by expanding the economy for everybody to get a job, and if the people are trained in the TVET area, they can create jobs for themselves and that will reduce the burden of unemployment on the government.”
Touching on Agriculture, the Ashanti regional minister mentioned that the region is the leading beneficiary of Canadian government’s support for agriculture in Ghana, “in the sense that, if we take the 276 districts in the country, Ashanti region alone received forty-three vehicles”.
Mr Osei-Mensah also said: “We have received more than 313 motorbikes for officers in the extension service, so I can say we are the greatest beneficiary and it has supported a lot in the Planting for Food and Jobs program.
the regional minister assured H.E. Kita Csaba that Ghana was going to get those vehicles to make the people mobile, saying “you cannot be at one place and educate the farmers, but with the provision of these vehicles, it has helped to improve upon the mobility of these workers and thus the education of the farmers, which affects the improvement of the overall productivity of the farmers.
Mr Osei-Mensah acknowledged another milestone by Canada, announcing that they have gone another step forward by supporting Ghana with an industry that is within the agriculture double chain – premium food.
“We have realised that you are in very, very significant sectors of our economy, being education and agriculture, where every country is making efforts to increase the agriculture productivity and thereby increase food security.
“If you have people helping you in the expansion of your agriculture sector, invariably they are supporting the food security in the country and by so doing when you get excess you need to enter into agro-processing.”
Touching on mining, the Ashanti Regional Minister asserted that large scale mining like Asanko Gold do not cause problems for the region –they do not indulge in illegal mining and those companies who are into large scale mining do not create a problem because after digging a pit and upon completion of the mining, they still cover up and even plant some trees.
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