Akpafu-Todzi (V/R), Feb. 20, GNA - Colonel Cyril Necku (Rtd), Deputy Volta Regional Minister, at the weekend urged communities to use festivals as platforms to re-discover economic potentials and devise appropriate strategies to harness them to advance the course of the people. It behoves on stakeholders in the development of communities and societies to fashion out pragmatic measures to tackle development challenge= s in partnership with the government, he said.

Col. Necku said at the annual Kawu Iron Festival of the chiefs and people of Akpafu, staged at Akpafu-Todzi in the Hohoe Municipality. The people originally known as Kawu's from the Guan stock are curren= tly referred to as 93Akpafus," premised on the sound that emanated from the iron smelting trade and vocation of the people in earlier times. The festival depicted the historical remains, cultural and traditional heritage and values of the Akpafus with a demonstration on blacksmithing. It was under the theme; 93Kawu Iron Festival; Investment Development through Tourism, Culture and Tradition."

Col. Necku implored traditional rulers to use festivals to re-connect their kinsmen within and outside Ghana and re-establish relations and stronger links towards promoting friendship, unity and avenues for investment.

He said festivals in modern times should seek to achieve accelerated development and that the people must take advantage of that.

Col. Necku said government was making frantic efforts to improve the lots of the people through the New Rice for Africa Project, the Rice Suppor= t Project, Roots and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programmes, as the area was noted for the cultivation of rice, cocoa and animal husbandry. He said the Better Ghana Agenda was on course and various sectors of the region would receive their share of the national cake, which had culminated in the sod-cutting of the University of Health and Allied Sciences and the completion of the Eastern Corridor roads.

Ms Akua Sena Dansua, Minister of Tourism, urged stakeholders to continue to play complementary roles to boost tourism in the country and commended the people for sustaining the age-old festival for present and future generations.

She said sustainable development of tourism hinged on environmental cleanliness, which draws direct relationship to boosting the industry and entreated Ghanaians to development interest in domestic tourism as it held the key to rapid development.

Ms Dansua urged traditional areas and authorities to repackage and modernize their festivals to facilitate placement on the tourism map saying the gains were overwhelming.

Mr Victor-Hermann Condobrey, Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive, stressed the need for peace and unity in all areas, a prerequisite for development. He said the transformation of the Municipality was on course and all traditional areas would receive their share in one way or another. Nana Kofi Adu, Akwankyerefohene of Akpafu Traditional Area, called on the authorities to investigate why the area was traditionally counted under Buem Traditional Area but politically fell under Hohoe Municipal Area. He said the fallout was that Akpafu had no Traditional Council, large tracts of forest royalties went to the Jasikan District at the expense of the indigenes whose economic standing were poor with high rates of rural-urban drift of the youth.

Nana Kofi Adu entreated government to open feasibility into the iron deposits in the area and wondered why no attempts were made to develop the industry.