The government says some key measures are being rolled out to ensure that the lives of visitors for the Year of Return are not put in danger.
To this end, commercial drivers and security officers with the Immigration Service are being trained to be more courteous and professional in their dealings with the visitors.
Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, speaking on the Point of View on Citi TV on Wednesday disclosed that budgetary allocation has been made to some state institutions to undertake these training programmes to make the celebration peaceful.
“The National Road Safety Authority has been given a budget and they have started training taxi, uber and ‘trotro’ drivers for the past three months. They are training them on safety and many other things. Specifically, the Ministry of Tourism is also focusing on commercial drivers around the Airport areas as well. This is all part of preparing our drivers to be very courteous to people. It is also not only about the Year of Return, but to prepare them to be more professional in how they do their things. With regard to Immigration, they have been trained and coached to deal with visitors. So practical steps are being taken to deal with issues,” he said.
Selling ‘Peace’
Mr. Adjei Sowah also indicated that the period is for Ghana to showcase its much talked about ‘peaceful country’ and ‘friendly citizens’ mantra.
To him, these virtues have become selling points that the country will offer the ‘Year of Return’ participants.
“One of the things we pride ourselves with as Ghana is the safety and peace that we enjoy. This cannot be competed by any African nation. We are proud of that and it has become our biggest selling point. So we are not selling empty things but we are selling this too as well. The people of this country are very receptive. This is one of the things we don’t take for granted that is why a lot of people come into the city.”
‘Ghana to make more money’
Kwaku Darko Ankrah, a historian also said the celebration of the Year of Return is putting Ghana in a position to rake in more revenue for economic development.
“If you look at official World Bank statistics, it shows that remittances from diasporans only are two and half times bigger than foreign direct investments. It has also shown that it is three times higher in official aid for African countries including Ghana. If you look at the amount that has come to sub-Saharan Africa alone, it grew by 9.3 percent in 2017. In that year, it was US$ 42 billion but in 2018, it has moved to US$ 46 billion and in 2019, the World Bank said it was US$ 48 billion so in 2020, it will move to US$ 51 billion. Last year, Ghana made about US$ 22 million and if the Diasporan Secretariat has come out to say that it is around US$ 1.9 billion which is Year of Return alone without other visitations, then it is likely that we may move from the two digits to [more].”
Year of Return
The “Year of Return” is a year-long event of the return of the descendants of the first enslaved Africans from James Town in Accra to James town in Virginia in the United States of America (USA).