Mr Charles Wordey (3rd left), Head of Corporate Affairs, NIB presenting the cheque to Dr Sagre Bambangi, a deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture

NIB donates towards Farmers Day, supports KMA

Daily Graphic Business News Nov - 27 - 2017 , 05:59

The National Investment Bank (NIB) has donated GH¢96,950 to two institutions as part of its corporate social responsibility initiative.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) received GH¢30,000 to assist the ministry in the organisation of this year’s National Farmers Day Celebration which comes off on December 1, 2017, while the rest of the GH¢66,950 went to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) in support of its recently launched Street Tree Planting Project towards the beautification of Kumasi.

The project, which involves the planting of trees on the ceremonial streets of the metropolis from the Oduom Roundabout to the Asafo Interchange, is aimed at restoring the greenery of the city, a feature which earned it the name “The Garden City” of West Africa.

Encouraging farming

The donation to the MOFA was aimed at encouraging farming in Ghana, the reason for organising the National Farmers Day Celebration.

The event, which is organised annually on the first Friday of December, is aimed at recognising the contributions of farmers across the country.

This year’s ceremony, which will be the country’s 33rd Farmers Day, was launched in August 2017 and is under the theme, “Planting for Food and Jobs.”

Presenting the cheque at the ministry, the Head of the Corporate Affairs Department of the NIB, Mr Charles Wordey, said: “Farmers have over the years provided a range of agricultural produce for the country so it is appropriate that we celebrate them.

“We believe by showing our appreciation with this amount, our farmers will be motivated to continue providing for the country,” he said.

Poor attitudes

While speaking at the KMA during the presentation ceremony, Mr Wordey bemoaned the poor attitude of the citizenry in general towards the environment, saying it was one of the reasons for which Kumasi had lost its pride as the Garden City of West Africa.

He commended the assembly for taking up the challenge to address the environmental challenges and pledged the bank’s support to any activity that would help grow businesses.

“As we have over the years been at the forefront of industrialisation financing, we intend to even step it up as we turn 55 years as a bank next year.

“Our drive to bring banking to the doorstep of our customers have been the real motivation and by the close of the year, you will see another branch of NIB open somewhere very close to you. A few years ago, we had just 28 branches but today, we can boast of 52 branches nationwide,” he said.

Gratitude of the ministry

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the ministry, a Deputy Minister, Dr Sagre Bambangi, said the donation would “certainly make a positive impact on this year’s celebration as it will enable the government to adequately show its profound gratitude to farmers for their dedication to feed the people of this country”.

He said the government had instituted a number of initiatives which if successfully rolled out, would help boost agricultural yields.

Various initiatives

The initiatives include the supply of fertilisers, construction of dams, provision of agricultural implements and the subsequent mechanisation of agriculture.

Supporting farmers in their quest to produce more, according to Mr Bambangi, was critical for the growth and sustenance of the economy.

KMA

For his part, the Chief Executive of the KMA, Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, expressed gratitude to NIB for the thoughtful gesture, saying: “It will enable the assembly to successfully execute the Street Planting Project which is one of the assembly’s flagship programmes.”

The assembly, he said, had engaged the services of 150 National Service persons to embark on a house-to-house sensitisation exercise to educate and rally residents behind the project for a smooth rollout.

Mr Antwi said the assembly had partnered the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to remodel the city, adding that: “This comes on the heels of a feasibility study conducted recently by the university on the city’s vegetation.

Tree planting

“Over 3,000 trees and shrubs have in the past two months been planted in the city as part of a strategy to help improve the environmental aesthetics of Kumasi,” Mr Antwi said.

He, therefore, called on corporate bodies across the country “to emulate the deeds of NIB to assist the assembly redeem its lost image”.