Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia last Saturday joined the chiefs and people of Abiriw to celebrate this year's Ohum Festival, where he listed Government’s achievements over the past three years.

Notable among the achievements were the Free Senior High School (SHS) Policy, Planting for Food and Jobs and the Nation Builders Corps, which he said had brought a lot of relief to the majority of Ghanaians.

He said the rationale for the implementation of the double-track system was to absorb the large enrolment numbers occasioned by the Free SHS Policy.

However, he said the government was building additional educational infrastructure to absorb the high numbers countrywide in the shortest possible time.

He also outlined some projects government was implementing in Abiriw in the Eastern Region, which includes the construction of town roads in Abiriw, Awukugua, Adukrom and Apirede Town including a 20-kilometre Amanfro-Tinkong road.

The people were assured that the roads would be constructed this year while Abonse-Agomeda and Asamang-Lakpa-Aboa-Koforidua roads would also be completed in the course of the year.

More so, 1,000 cockerels were distributed to farmers free of charge in 2019 under the Rearing for Food and Jobs while 10,000 mango seedlings were also supplied to farmers under the Planting for Export and Rural Development.

Dr Bawumia added that under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme, three solar-powered mechanised boreholes, water closet toilets, teachers’ quarters, three-unit classroom blocks and a new modern market had been constructed and were nearing completion.

He told the people that more development projects would be rolled at Abiriw this year to further improve the livelihoods of the people for sustained prosperity.

The annual Ohum Festival is one the famous and most important cultural festivals in the country, celebrated by the people of the Okyeman Kingdom to thank God for blessing the land.

It is marked in remembrance of the ancestors of the Akyem land for their struggle and perseverance to keep the Kingdom and also to celebrate the first harvest of yam and ask for increased harvest in the coming year.