Sunyani, July 19, GNA - A nine-member group of history students from the J. Sergeant Reynolds and John Tyler community schools in Richmond Virginia in the United States of America today called on the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr. Ignatius Baaffour-Awuah at his office in Sunyani.

The group, which was led by its Ghanaian Professor, Dr. Joseph Appiah is in the country to learn about Ghanaian culture and traditions, regional administration and its functions and the impact it has on the people.

Dr. Appiah said the students are learning about African cultures and traditions and its system of governance as part of their academic pursuance, adding that since he is a Ghanaian by birth and for that matter a son of the region he decided to bring the students to Sunyani to learn more about the region.

The Professor of History said, prior to their coming to Sunyani, the group visited some of the historical sites in the country such as the Cape Coast Castle and the Slave river at Assin Manso to enable them to have a first hand feel about the impact of the slave trade on the African continent and for the matter, Ghana.

He said the world has become a global society and as students, they need to travel to learn more about other people's cultures and their traditions so that they could integrate well in any society they find themselves.

Mr. Ignatius Baaffour-Awuah who welcomed the group to the region used the opportunity to explain the system of administration as it pertained in the country, his visions he has for the region and some of the challenges being faced as the new regional minister.

He told the group that although the country is practising democracy it had not yet attained the status of their mother country America, as there are still some lapses and hoped that with time, the country would attain the right status in the pursuance of true democratic process. Mr. Baffour-Awuah noted that although the region is generally referred to as the bread- basket of the nation, it is finding it difficult attracting investors and as such many of the farm produce go waste as there are no storage facilities and processing plants to turn the raw materials into secondary products.

He therefore, appealed to the group to use their visit to attract investors to invest in the region to enable the youth to find employment.

The Regional Minster noted that as a new Minister, one of his main challenges is to unite all the people in the region, be they settlers or indigenous, adding that he has already began by paying courtesy calls on all the chiefs in his quest to unite them as unity breeds peace, without which the region would lag behind in development

Mr. Baaffour-Awuah also told the delegation about the numerous virgin tourist sites that abound in the region and his vision to make these areas accessible to attract tourists to the region to create more job avenues.

He appealed to the leader of the group to consider organising exchange programmes between their schools and some of the schools in the region to enhance education.