Togbe Afede XIV, the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, is wondering why Ghana has inadequate infrastructural development despite its rich natural resources.
According to him, the country has a huge debt stock, there is too little to show for the country’s borrowing.
Climaxing the 2022 Asogli Yam Festival in Ho, Togbe Afede XIV at a durbar noted that Ghana’s weak economic fundamentals have been exposed by COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Our economic problems predate COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. We are lucky to have so much – 30 per cent of all mineral resources in the world, so much of the world’s arable lands, yet we cultivate so little to the world’s output, and we remain poor, and the worst part is that we are so much indebted,” a worried Togbe Afede said.
“More worrying is the fact that, with a lot of debt, we cannot tell what that has done for us. So we still lack a lot of the basic facilities; poor roads. From Accra to Ho and Ho to Aflao, we know how bad the road is. Many of these roads used to be very good. If they were good and are now bad, then it means that we have retrogressed as a country,” he added.
This year’s yam festival of the Chiefs and people of Asogli State was under the distinguished patronage of Togbe Afede XIV.
The festival started on August 6, 2022, and ended on Sunday, September 11.
The one-month festival seeks to highlight unity, reconciliation, stocktaking and development and is also a platform for the annual reunion with the ancestors and the re-affirmation of allegiance by all chiefs and their subjects in the Asogli State to the Agbogbome Stool, as quoted by Ghanaweb.com.
The Yam festival was under the theme “Let’s Eschew Greed, Unite for Peace, Development and Prosperity”.