Ho (Volta Region) 29 March ?99

The Volta Trust Forum, a local initiative for attracting investment and development into the Volta Region, was launched at Ho last Saturday with a call on citizens of the region to make financial commitments to its development. The groundwork of the trust, which will be a company limited by guarantee, has been put in shape. Professor Kofi Awoonor, interim chairman of the trust, said it is the most practical initiative in the region with a clear message that the region is capable of helping itself. The present initiative is the result of a lengthy painstaking and an all-involving work with ample room for accommodation and refinement based on past experiences.

Professor Awoonor said the region abounds in men and women with the requisite financial, entrepreneurial and intellectual skills and resources necessary to achieve its qualitative transformation. Launching the trust, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Agbenaza (rtd), Central Regional Minister, said this is an era of positive initiatives and scientific thinking and approach to solving problems. Mr James Akpo, of the Strategic African Securities (SAS) and interim co-ordinating secretary of the trust, said it has so far mobilised 120 million cedis out of a target of one billion cedis from members' contributions.

Mr Akpo said there will be a board of trustees, members of which will contribute 5,000 dollars each, while ordinary members will pay 500,000 cedis and an annual subscription of 50,000 cedis each. The trust, which will engage in portfolio investment, will have a general meeting, an 18 member executive council, a six member management committee and committees on education, finance, agriculture and tourism. Alhaji Seidu Iddi, Volta Regional Minister, in his welcoming address, described the initiative as bold, enviable and worthy of support and encouragement. Present were bankers, business executives, Members of Parliament and administrators.