Ghanaian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Hon. (Mrs.) Catherine Abelema Afeku has said the ministry will be handing out bars of chocolate to tourists that visits the country from the 14th of February to mark the 2nd edition of the Chocolate Day themed: “Love Chocolate Love Adventure”
The minister said the Chocolate Day initiative introduced in 2017 by the ministry was widely received by tourists visiting the country.
Speaking at the Meet-the-Press Series held in Accra to intimate the media on the strides the ministry and its Agencies have made since inception, Madam Catherine Ablema Afeku, stated that the mission of the ministry is to create a conducive environment for sustainable growth and development of the sector to enable it to contribute enormously to the GDP through effective and efficient use of appropriate policies, plans, programs and projects.
She added that it is also to develop and sustain public-private-partnership with the Diaspora for resource mobilization and investment.
“The first official public function of the Ministry was to spearhead the organization of the Chocolate Day on February 14th, 2017 under the theme: ’Love Chocolate Love Adventure”. For the first time in Chocolate Day celebrations, we decided that everybody entering Ghana for the first time or who has been away for a while, must be welcomed into Ghana with some bars of the world-acclaimed brown chocolates of Ghana. My team and I were at the Kotoka International Airport for this exercise. This initiative was massively received and we intend to repeat same on the 14th February 2018 In the same month,”.
Madam Afeku disclosed that, preliminary works on the establishment of a paragliding school to train more Ghanaians to participate in the yearly Kwahu Easter Paragliding is in the offing noting that 11 Solo Pilots have already been trained and will be participating the in the this year’s event.
She noted that the government decided to establish the school to ease the cost of organising the event on the nation, adding that most of the cost in organizing the Paragliding event has been the engagement of foreign pilots.
She said: “The Kwahu Easter Paragliding event was organized by the GTA, recording one of the highest patronage in recent memory. In order that the organization of the event does not take an undue toll on the national budget, the Ministry took the decision to set up a Ghana Paragliding School to train local pilots. I am happy to report that training of Ghanaians – eleven of them so far, who will initially fly as Solo Pilots, has begun.
“Apart from heightening interest among the local population, the eventual deployment of indigenous Tandem Pilots will reduce expenditure as the major cost in organizing the Paragliding Event has been the engagement of foreign pilots. As I speak, preliminary works on the establishment of a paragliding school to train more Ghanaians in the offing and in the coming weeks, we will duly inform you.
“The use of local tandem pilots can also increase the frequency of organizing the event. We invite captains of industry, heads of institutions and the business community, both Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians, to adopt this form of adventure and leisure. Currently the Odweanoma mountain site in Kwahu-Atibie is under construction and will be re-opened to the Public in March in time for this year’s paragliding festival.”
