Samuel Abu Jinapor
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has inaugurated the National Planning Committee for the Green Ghana Project.
The inauguration ceremony took place on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Jinapor indicated that he had in accordance with the vision of President Nana Akufo-Addo initiated the Green Ghana Project.
He said “This project will see to the initial planting of five million (5,000,000) economic trees in a day, across our country.”
This historic tree planting day, the first of its kind in our country, is scheduled to take place on Friday 11th June, this year, according to him.
”On this seminal day, His Excellency the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will plant a commemorative tree together with the Vice-President, the Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament, His Lordship the Chief Justice and other prominent citizens of our society. Other prominent citizens of our land such as His Majesty, Otumfuo Asantehene, His Majesty, the Yaa-Naa and also significantly, ordinary Ghanaians will be called upon to plant trees wherever they find themselves on this day,” he added.
He explained that the Green Ghana Project seeks “to mobilize the mass of our population to plant trees on this day, nurture them to maturity and contribute to the preservation of our environment. Parliament, our political leaders, traditional leaders, Corporate Ghana, Security agencies, activists in the green world, leaders of local government, teachers, nurses, informal sector employees, and ordinary Ghanaians will be galvanized to contribute their resources, energies and support to make the Green Ghana Project a success, as this will increase significantly the forest cover of our country.”
He said the Multi-Stakeholder National Planning Committee will oversee the effective and efficient planning and execution of the Green Ghana Project.
“This committee will work under my general oversight and be chaired by the hardworking and dependable former Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and Member of Parliament for Atwima-Nwabiagya, Hon. Benito Owusu Bio. Upon broad consultation, we have decided to crave the indulgence of the highly respected and outstanding statesman and woman to jointly chair our fundraising committee, which will be the heartbeat and lifeline of this whole enterprise. I refer to the venerable Ehunabobrim Nana Prah Agyensaim VI, Paramount Chief of Assin Owirenkyi Traditional Area, the affable Madam Dr. Joyce Aryee, Head of the Salt and Light Ministry. The major tasks of the Committee have been segmented into Four Sub-Committees as follows:
i) Finance Sub-committee
ii) Publicity and Protocol Sub-committee
iii) Operations and Logistics Sub-committee
iiii) Monitoring and Reporting Sub-committee”.
“I must however add that the committee will be a master of its own rules and procedures and is thus permitted to establish as many committees, teams, consultancy as it may deem fit for the realization of its mandate. Government expects that the work of the committee should as much as practicable be decentralized.”
By Melvin Tarlue