Asantehene Enlightens Canadian Envoy on Areas for Collaboration

The King of the Asante Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has suggested a collaboration between Ghana and Canada in the areas of technical education, technical assistance and agriculture.

In an enlightening conversation with the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Her Excellency Myriam Montrat, during a courtesy visit to the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi on January 17, 2025, he acknowledged the over US $600,000 worth of assistance offered to the West African country.

However, His Majesty affirmed that there was room and enough opportunities to solidify and expand collaboration.

Technical Collaboration
First, the King highlighted collaboration in terms of technical education, an area he observes Canada is well-versed.

The King lamented about the country’s growing unemployment rate year after year as universities continue to churn out graduates.

“We have a lot of students unemployed after school where do we put them because {the public and private sectors are full}. It’s either we collaborate to identify what courses should be taught in these schools so that after education they can self-employ and set employment systems. Those are areas I seek collaboration.”

He also suggested a collaboration between the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and universities in Canada for long-distance studies.

Environment
The Occupant of the Golden Stool also called for technical assistance in reclaiming lost vegetative covers and purifying polluted water bodies as a result of illegal mining activities in Ghana.

“The era of galamsey has destroyed most of our water bodies. We still need technical support to deal with it. We need to be able to reclaim all the lands and water for people to consume.”

Agriculture
Another viable sector Otumfuo enlightened the envoy on was agriculture.

He stated that the lack of resources and the needed technology for agriculture coupled with difficulties in securing capital for investment makes the sector unattractive to the youth.

“We have the available manpower but unfortunately, we don’t have the know-how in terms of the fiscal space to transform our fortune. Agriculture, for instance, we train students in Agriculture, but the attraction is not there because we don’t have the resources.”

“The banks don’t have the capacity to do it. They are into buying treasury bills and it doesn’t advance development. What can we do to advance development and what can we Canada offer Ghana in relation to that so that so that we can advance development using productive areas.”

He recalled how Ghana offered Canada skilled labour during the administration of Dr Kwame Nkrumah when the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) was set up at a time when Canada was in need.

He pressed, “We don’t want to export the human resources now. We also want you to help us.”

Otumfuo thereby urged the envoy to table these to her government for the needed collaboration.

“When you are fashioning policy and talking to your government, these are areas to see how best you can collaborate with us to advance it.”

Courtesy Visit
H.E Montrat was at the Palace to pay homage to the King. She used the occasion to affirm her country’s supporting the economy of Ghana out of distress.

“We want to do all we can to help support the economy and bring some of our technical expertise that can be shared and the knowledge for the people and the Ashanti Region to prosper,” she said in her remarks.

She highlighted peace and security, education and environmental protection as her priority and used the occasion to hail His Majesty for his crucial role in peace-building in Ghana.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini