President John Dramani Mahama has charged traditional rulers in the Western Region to join hands with government to create a spatial plan for the region.

According to the President, failure to position land management and development of the region could give rise to increasing activities of speculators.

This, he warned, could lead to poor development planning, land abuse, disorderliness in infrastructure development, among other challenges.

Addressing the chiefs and people of Nzema at Sanzule, the President said the expansion of the oil and gas industry should position the Western Region as the growth pole of the country.

This, he said, would require proper planning and judicious use of land and other resources in the region.

The President, therefore, advised the chiefs to rather use their lands as equities in the companies registering their presence in the region instead of an outright sale policy which would deny future generations of access to land.

On the merger of technical and vocational education in the country, President Mahama explained that it was to address the growing unemployment in the country.

“Merging vocational and technical education would, in no small way, close the existing skills gap between education and industry, which is currently hurting the job market,” he stressed.

According to the President, his vision to make Ghana the petrochemical hub of West Africa would, therefore, not fail.

With skills acquisition in place, President Mahama said Ghanaians should brace themselves up for available opportunities because local expertise would be created to move forward the various subsectors of the national economy being expanded by the government.

He reminded stakeholders in the oil and gas industry, in particular, to constantly comply with the laws of the country with the emphasis on local content.