Citizens abroad to help pay nation's debt

Atibie-Kwahu (E/R) -- Ghanaian citizens abroad are prepared to contribute to the payment of the nation's huge debt including the debt owed by the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). They have appealed to the Ministry of Finance to open a special account to enable them pay their contributions into it for the settlement of the debts.

Rev Daniel Boakye, a Ghanaian resident in New Jersey in the US, said this at the Kwahu South Peoples Assembly at Kwahu-Atibie on Monday. Nana Ohene Ntow, a deputy Government Spokesman on Finance, said an office would be established at the Ministry of Economic Planning and Regional Integration for such an account to be opened for Ghanaians abroad to channel their contributions.

On price fluctuation of goods and services in the country, he said it was due to the instability of the cedi and advised the people to produce more for export and also patronise locally produced goods to avoid spending huge sums of foreign exchange to import goods.

On what the government was doing about the destruction of crops by Fulani herdsmen and their cattle, the Deputy Minister of Interior, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, said a survey would be carried out to know the location of the cattle. They would be flushed out of the country after the issuing of citizenship identification cards. He advised the unemployed youth to register at the various vocational and technical training centres to undergo skill training in order to be gainfully employed.