ATL prints Ghana@60 cloth
The government has sent a strong signal of its commitment to reviving struggling business entities in the country by giving the contract for the production of the 60th anniversary cloth to the Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL).
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The Chairman of the Ghana60yearson Anniversary Celebration Committee, Mr Ken Amankwah, said the Akosombo Textiles has for some time now been producing below its capacity but when the contract was given to the company, it was able to produce the cloth “in a record time of two weeks”.
Unveiling the official cloth for the country’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in Accra yesterday, Mr Amankwah said his excitement at the output of ATL stemmed from the fact that there were doubting Thomases who, at the least opportunity, challenged the ability of ATL to live up to expectations.
The cloth comes in four colours: white, blue, yellow and green, with the symbol for the anniversary beautifully and boldly imprinted in it.
“Day and night they were working to produce this cloth. That is what the Ghanaian spirit should be,” he said drawing applause from the gathering.
“I tell you that we have the capacity, we have the creative force to grow this nation on our own. It is important that we grow our own and eat our own,” he added.
He paid tribute to the banking industry, especially uniBank, for providing the seed capital of GH¢300,000 for the activities of the committee with a pledge to top up later on.
He said the bank had been generous in underwriting the total cost of the anniversary cloth and called for more support from corporate Ghana and individuals.
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Five key legacy projects
The Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Events, Mr Lord Commey, said there were five key areas that the committee was looking at as legacy projects that the Ghanaian people would be proud of at the end of the celebrations.
One of such projects, ‘The Jubilee Youth Entrepreneur Challenge,’ would be launched at Suame-Magazine next week.
The challenge will solicit business ideas from young people across Ghana and award the most-likely-to-be-profitable ideas.
Mr Commey also announced that the Osu Castle was going to be converted to a very spectacular Heads of State Museum that would embody all information both in text, images and physical objects attributed to past presidents that the Ghanaian people would be very proud of.
Also, he said, 60 e-libraries would be put up with the significance of the ‘60’ number denoting the country’s anniversary.
He said the project would be evenly spread out to all the 10 regions with each region having its share of six e-libraries.
He said a corporate body had decided to sponsor the project but would not mention the name because the entity had been tasked to come out with a design and a three dimensional view which would be used in launching the project at a date to be announced later.
The sod cutting for a fifth project, he said, would be done by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo himself, adding that he would not provide any details, saying there would be the need to keep Ghanaians in suspense.
The torch for the anniversary, he said, would be lit on March 6, 2017, after the President had lit a perpetual flame at the Independence Square to wrap up the parade.
Regional celebrations
The idea of the lighting of the torch, he said, was to get the flame that would run through every region of the country for each region to celebrate 60 years of its existence as a region.
“We should all partake in the events of the regions to celebrate the many achievements that we have chalked up as a nation over the period. As we celebrate, we should also look back and see what the shortfalls are and what we can do better as we look at a centenary in 40 years,” he said.
Mr Commey said the plan was for the anniversary to be wrapped up on March 6. 2018, exactly a year from the launch of the anniversary celebrations.
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As part of the activities, he said the February 28 Crossroads Shooting incident would be re-enacted and celebrated in grand style in honour of the country’s heroes who led the beginning of the struggle for independence.
“It has been a moment only reserved for schoolchildren to watch, but this time around His Excellency the President himself would be laying the wreath, and we invite the general public because for the first time in 20 years, the Ghana Actors Guild will re-enact the incident,” he explained.
He said on the same day of the re-enactment of the February 28 shooting, there would be an inter-schools debate at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Hall, adding that already the selection of schools for the debate had been concluded.
President Akufo-Addo would present prizes to the participating schools and individuals who would excel.
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International gospel concert
As part of the celebrations, there would be an international gospel music dubbed: “Ghana Praise 2017” for which Don Moen, Darlene Zserch, Nathaniel Basit, Sinach and Sonny Badu have been invited to perform.
Pastor Josh Laryea, a member of the committee and also a renowned gospel musician, who announced this, said eight local Ghanaian artistes had been billed for the concert.
Those artistes, he said, were Joe Mettle, Daughters of Glorious Jesus, CODA, Francis Armoo, Jomobi, Jackie Mpare and himself.
MUSIGA
The President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Mr Bice Osei Kufuor, also known as Obour,said the “Celebrating Ghana Music” project under the subtitle: “The Festival,” which would be held at the Independence Square over a three-day period from March 10-12, 2017, would bring to Ghanaians, not just the music they had been hearing on the airwaves, but even relatively unknown genres within the Ghanaian music industry.
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He said painstaking efforts had been made to bring on board all kinds of music available in the country regardless of their geographic locations.
In all, he said, 60 artistes from across the country would be performing for the excitement of Ghanaians over the three-day period.