Some seedling suppliers in the Ashanti Region are demanding payment of some GH¢2.3 billion owed them by the government of Ghana for the supply of seedlings.
According to the Ashanti Region Seedling Contractors Association, the said amount is for the supply of seedlings for the government’s flagship Green Ghana Day celebrations for 2021 and 2022.
The group is thus calling on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to intervene in the matter stressing that it has failed in various attempts to have the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to honour the debt.
“The situation is really hurting us. A lot of people are in trouble and the law courts are attacking them. We have gone to the Forestry Commission several times to no avail, sometimes we even sleep there but all the promises have not come true.
“When we go there, they treat us like we are not humans, they don’t feel for us, As I stand here I have five children, I went in for a loan but when we go there they treat us like we are not part of Ghana. And so we call on Akufo-Addo, please come to our aid,” Secretary of the Ashanti Region Seedlings Contractors Association, Gloria Amponsah said in an interview with Citi FM.
Introduced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2021, the Green Ghana Day is an aggressive national afforestation/reforestation programme to restore the lost forest cover of Ghana and to contribute to the global effort to mitigate climate change.
The maiden edition was held on June 11 2021, where an estimated 7 million tree seedlings were planted across the country.
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File photo of President Akufo-Addo planting a tree on Green Ghana Day