By Stephen Asante
Kumasi, Oct. 16, GNA – The national campaign to halt illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) is unprecedented as most well-meaning Ghanaians have thrown weight behind the initiative, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said on Sunday.
“Everybody is talking about it and that connotes the magnitude of the problem. The Government’s agenda is to involve all identifiable groups in dealing with the issue head-on,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo, who paid a courtesy call on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, rallied the citizenry to give their all to make the anti-galamsey crusade successful.
The President is on a five-day working visit to the Ashanti Region to inspect and inaugurate development projects.
Projects billed for inspection include the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Maternal and Children’s Block, Kejetia/Central Market Phase Two, Obuasi Trauma and Accident Hospital, and Boankra Inland Port projects.
The rest are the Anwiankwanta-Obuasi and Santasi-Apire Road, Oforikrom, Nsuta and Trede Agenda 111 projects, as well as a sod-cutting ceremony for work to begin on the Suame Interchange.
President Akufo-Addo is also expected to inaugurate the Toase Magistrate’s Court, residential accommodation for the Appeals Court judges, the ECG KATH 33/11 kV Primary sub-Station, and Nsuta Maize Processing Factory, which had been completed under the ‘One District, One Factory programme.
On infrastructural projects executed in the region over the last six years, the President cited the construction and rehabilitation of about 400 kilometres of asphalted roads, as well as over 30 hospital projects meant to make life comfortable for the people.
The President said the Government had worked assiduously to impact positively on the living conditions of the people and was determined to improve upon it.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu, welcomed the President to the region and lauded him for regular visiting to inspect ongoing development projects.
That, he said, was necessary to ensure the successful completion of those projects.
GNA