Tourism Ministry Pledges Support For Flower And Gardening Show

The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts; Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare, has pledged her Ministry’s unflinching support for the annual Ghana Garden and Flower show organized by Stratcom Africa in Accra to mobilize gardeners to generate funds to better their livelihood.

According to the Minister, the show has the capacity to generate foreign exchange for the country as it has embarked on the training of Ghanaians in the horticulture industry to take advantage of the industry.

The Minister announced her Ministry’s supporter at opening ceremony the of the fourth edition of Ghana Garden and Flower Show attended by Ron Strikker, the Royal Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana and Cheong Loon-Lai, the Malaysian High Commissioner to Ghana.

She explained the fair is one of the shows she had followed from afar even before becoming a Minister in the President John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress’ administration.

She said measures are being taken by the Ministry to diversify the tourism industry to expand and develop the Ghanaian economy using tourism, culture and gardening.

She added that the Ministry is working on a project to support urbanization in collaboration with the Parks and Department of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to meet all the garden and flower requirements of the country to attract more tourists and generate foreign exchange.

In a welcome address; the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stratcom Africa, Esther Cobbah, said the Theme: ‘Dream it, Discover it, Live it” is focused on the five Ps of the United Nations’(UN) Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) namely People, Prosperity, Partnership, Peace and Planet.

‘We were fortunate that the UN Resident Coordinator, Miss Christine Evans-Klock, outdoored the show during the media launch held earlier to herald the show today.

This, year our exhibitors came with a wider array of flowers, plants, pots and all the things needed for gardening for the fair to be made a memorable one in the country’.

She said one of the highlights of the conference to be held as part of the show is the stingless bees farming education and how they contribute to plant reproduction resulting in fruits and seeds which humans and plants depend on daily basis.

She noted that Stratcom Africa is committed to making Garden Movement which is pursuit of greener, healthier, wealthier and more beautiful Ghana for tourist attractions in the country.

She took the opportunity to express her company’s heartfelt appreciation to its partners and sponsors of the show namely yours truly; The Herald newspaper, Lux, Stanbic Bank Royal Seinchi Hotel, Topp Core Securities, DPP Outdoor, Stage Craft, Fan Milk, Poly Tank and Softlanding.

The rest are Ghana Home Loans, Moevenpick Hotel, Tropical Cables, HFC Bank and Cummings Ghana Limitedhave all demonstrated their immense dedications to the growth of a greener, healthier, wealthier and more beautiful Ghana through gardening.

She was quick to add that in spite of all these supports for the show there are difficulties in garnering same support for the Ghana Garden Movement, a flower and gardening movement embarked on by the participants of the show to educate Ghanaians on the need to garden.